Right of First Refusal with Stepparents

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

My order reads as follows:
Right of First Refusal- If a parent will be absent for more than four hours while the children are in that parents care, then that parent shall notify the other parent and the other parent will have the right to care for the children during that absence.

I have a few questions on this:

1. Does this apply to my child staying in my house with her step mother and brothers and sisters? Or when she is staying at her mothers house with her live in grandmother without her mother present.

2. The mother has moved over an hour away. Do we have to drop off and pick up the child if the other parent chooses to take the first right to babysit?

I am considering taking this to a lawyer but am wondering if it is worth the time/money.

A stepparent and grandparent are NOT parents. And yes you will have to do transportation.

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Quoting MK9874

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The mother has moved over an hour away. Do we have to drop off and pick up the child if the other parent chooses to take the first right to babysit?

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Quoting Ohiogal

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And yes you will have to do transportation.

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What's your legal authority for that assertion?

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Quoting MK9874

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

My order reads as follows:
Right of First Refusal- If a parent will be absent for more than four hours while the children are in that parents care, then that parent shall notify the other parent and the other parent will have the right to care for the children during that absence.

I have a few questions on this:

1. Does this apply to my child staying in my house with her step mother and brothers and sisters? Or when she is staying at her mothers house with her live in grandmother without her mother present.

2. The mother has moved over an hour away. Do we have to drop off and pick up the child if the other parent chooses to take the first right to babysit?

I am considering taking this to a lawyer but am wondering if it is worth the time/money.

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Does the order require you to do the transportation? The reason why I ask is that most orders I have seen (or state guidelines) require the parent who wants to exercise the extra parenting time to provide the transportation.

With an hour's distance between homes I also think that the order could be modified fairly easily to 8 or more hours rather than 4.

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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What's your legal authority for that assertion?

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Sorry .. I should not have said that.

The order states this:
Return of Child by ME: I an ordered to return the child to the residence of HER at the end of each period of possession.

It also says in another place:
Return of Child by ME: I am ordered to return the child to HER if SHE is entitled to possession of the child, at the end of each of MY exclusive periods of possession's, at the place designated in this standard possession order.

Right now we pick up and return the child during any of our regular periods of possession. However if she moves out of the current county (which is the largest in the united states) she has to pick her up.

Your court order cannot be interpreted out-of-context. The second clause would not apply to the present discussion, as the right-of-first-refusal periods aren't "at the end of each of [your] exclusive periods of possession". I am skeptical that the first provision applies either, but that's a discussion you should have with your lawyer.

Ok. Thank you for your input on this. I read somewhere else that this clause does not apply to live in family members. Is this true or does that have to be written out in the order? To have this clause removed all together would she have to agree on it? I don't think she would go for it because it is mostly benefiting her right now, which was not the original intent.

You can discuss that with your lawyer, after your lawyer reviews the full language of your order.