Father and Teenaged Child Don't Want to Obey the Visitation Order
My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Minnesota
I lost custody of my daughter when i moved out of state. I didn't know that it was no longer in the best interest of the child to Move out of state with the custodial parent. I moved back to Minnesota two years ago. And since last year I have only seen my daughter maybe 1 1/2 hours in total. I have an order for visitation with her but her father thinks he doesn't have to obey it. Daughter just turned 17 in February and I'm supposed to have a 6 week consecutive summer visit with her and she refused and her father never tried to send her and the police wouldn't enforce the court order. They say it's a civil matter. Why should I have keep going to court to see my daughter? There has got to be a better way. What are my options?
Re: Court Order Not Enforced
Honestly? I doubt you're going to be able to do anything. She's 17 - even if you try to get Dad found in contempt, it's not going to make her come and visit. Plus, there's a decent chance it won't even get to court before she turns 18.
There's another element to this, too. If she's "forced" to come to your house when she'd rather not, you're going to be dealing with the possibility of damaging your relationship with her perhaps irreparably. I realize she's the kid, you're the parent, and she doesn't get to choose, and all of that - but as a practical matter this could cost you far more than you realize.
Re: Father Doesn't Follow Visitation Order After Mother's Move Out of State
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Quoting
niecakat
I lost custody of my daughter when i moved out of state. I didn't know that it was no longer in the best interest of the child to Move out of state with the custodial parent.
It's reasonable to infer that your court order required that you obtain permission before relocating the child's domicile to another state, you moved without permission, and that the litigation involved the father's effort to have the child's domicile returned to Minnesota.
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Quoting niecakat
I have an order for visitation with her but her father thinks he doesn't have to obey it.
Then you take him to court to enforce the order.
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Quoting niecakat
...and the police wouldn't enforce the court order. They say it's a civil matter.
Right. It's not their job to figure out who a child is supposed to be with during any given week of summer visitation. If you want to enforce the order you need to take your ex- to court for contempt proceedings and to seek make-up parenting time.
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Quoting niecakat
Why should I have keep going to court to see my daughter?
It doesn't sound like you have been going to court to enforce the order, as if you had been doing so you should have had a lot more contact than "maybe 1 1/2 hours in total" over the past year.
As Dogmatique suggests, your daughter is now 17 and trying to force her to visit you against her wishes could potentially cause more harm to your relationship than already exists. As the refusal to visit is coming from your daughter, not your ex-, there are parent-child issues that aren't going to be resolved by the court. What you should do is explore how you might get past those issues such that you can develop a normal relationship with your soon-to-be adult daughter. I suggest consulting a family counselor to explore the background of the problem and how you might start mending the relationship.