Enforcing or Amending a Custody Order

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Missouri

My ex husband filed for divorce 2 years ago and we have a 6 year old son together. I wasn't able to get an attorney at the time due to lack of funds. Long story short, I ended up signing the papers with no legal representation. The decree states that I should have reasonable contact with my son from 8am to 8pm, which I do not get. (2-3 days sometimes that I do not get to contact him, they simply do not answer the phone). The papers also stipulate that I am supposed to get information from my ex on how our son is doing in school, doctors appointments etc. which I do not get. The papers also stipulate that I get every other weekend and some holidays with my son. I would like more time with him. I am also not happy with the conditions upon we meet for picking up and dropping off my son. I want that location changed to a more supervised location.

So my question is, do I have any options? Can I have the police or court legally enforce the divorce decree? Can I have the divorce amended now that I can afford legal representation? Or did I screw myself completely when I signed the original papers?

"reasonable contact" is vague enough to be unenforceable.

Be warned though - if Dad makes a case that you don't need to be in contact with your child every day, you may find you actually get less contact time.

You're entitled to school and medical information; there's nothing stopping you from obtaining this yourself. Given that you can fix the issue, the court likely won't want to be involved.

Assuming Dad has custody, what are you wanting in terms of time?

Why do you need to have the pick off/drop off changed?

My ex could call my daughter anytime she wanted, and I always gave her the phone, except if she was on the soccer field :). Not that she called very often (perhaps once every two months?) In any case, she wanted something to complain about, and she filed with the court some petitions for contempt. The judge told her if open access wasn't good enough for her, she could have Mondays only between 6 and 8 pm to call if she liked. She hasn't called once since. Sad, but it does illustrate Dogmatique's point - you may get less than you had before.

As far as time with your son, you have what seems to be the standard amount of time. Understandable that you want more, but could be very difficult to get. If you don't have any weekday dinner time, you might ask for dinner on Wednesdays or something like that.

How often do you see your son outside of your visitation time for things like school activities, extracurriculars, etc.? And keep in mind that, while in the perfect world dad would send you all of the schedules, it's really your responsibility to figure them out if he doesn't. Just like info about doctor stuff.

If you have a legitimate reason for wanting pick - up location to be changed, I think that will be the easiest thing for you to get, provided that the proposed new location is fair to both of you.

every school activity he has had since all of this, I have gone to, there is nothing outside of school that he does that I am aware of, and if he did I would go to that to. I am very much a part of my sons life, and as for finding out about doc appts, what am i suppose to do... call the doctors office every week and see if my son has been in to been seen by them? Same as dentist... he wont even tell me my sons dentist name or where its at, I do know the dotors name and info, just think calling every where to find out if theres a appt or not is not exactly right... more stalker like... the school stuff I now know that I have to talk to the teacher, and I do thats why I received his report card

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Quoting sunshine82

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As for finding out about doc appts, what am i suppose to do... call the doctors office every week and see if my son has been in to been seen by them?

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Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do... Welcome to being a non custodial parent, unfortunately.

You can try to get relief from the court, ask the judge to compel dad to provide the name of the dentist. . . But sometimes you just have to get what you need despite the other parent. The court can only help you so much with these types of matters.