Can You be Taken to Court for Contempt Over a Late Pickup of a Child

[jk]

If you have a system such as our family wizard I suggest you both subscribe to it and use it.

Im not sure you’re being cooperative. After all, you’re here complaining about him not waiting at home until you can pick up the child.

There needs to be some other solution ans since youre schedule is the one causing problems on your time, the onus is on you to find the solution.

What really sounds odd is you won’t change the schedule to benefit him but you want to change the schedule to benefit you. Do you see a problem with that?

Ive purposefully ignored the girlfriend situation. It is an issue but it appears to be a one time situation while the Friday thing is ongoing. Courts don’t tend to jump on every single issue. It’s when there is a pattern of the same issue the pay more attention to. At most a judge would tell your husband; don’t let that happen anymore. The judge isn’t going to go nuts on him for a one time issue.

[junesummer]

I was advised NOT to allow him visitation against court order. He CANNOT just change the schedule whenever he wants to. Which has been the repeated issue for the last year. He has wanted to change the schedule every time his work schedule changed. I am not expecting him to wait home....I never said that. I dont think its too much to ask for him to drop my son off at child care which is 10 mins down the road.

[jk]

Actually the two of you can agree to just about anything. If you both agree to something, the court is not going to care of for no other reason neither party would be filing anything with the courts to review the activity. A lawyer that tells you not to work with each other to make things work for the both of you needs to be admonished by the court.

Now you have something new. You have never said anything about you having daycare arrangements near him. Given that info I see no reason you can’t expect him to deliver the child to the daycare. What is his excuse for not doing so?

[PMMH]

Read your decree. Twenty minutes late is not an issue in many cases. There is usually a grace period that needs to be given for things like traffic. If you were sitting in the driveway, how do you know what they were doing that made them late? That's an honest question.
Also, by asking him to drop the kid off somewhere else is asking him to change the agreement if the agreement says you are supposed to pick up. Being an absolute stickler to the letter is fine, but you have to follow it on your end also.

[llworking]

Yes I did But the fact you disgvree with my conclusion that the father is not keeping the child away from the mother and it is her schedule that is causing the issue is what I was addressing. The father doesn’t appear to be doing anything to keep the child from the mother and the situation is what it is because the mothers schedule does not allow her to retrieve the child when the order dictates. How is that the father keeping the child from the mother and how is it anything but the mothers situation that is causing the issue?

Mom, did have a solution. Her solution was to arrange for a babysitter and have dad drop off the child there on his way to work. Not perfect since it still inconveniences dad a bit, but a solution. Dad's solution is to take the child with him to work, which is an hour and a half drive for mom.

I blame both of them.

[readytoleave]

Can the babysitter go pick up the child from dad instead? Then there is no inconvenience for dad

[llworking]

Can the babysitter go pick up the child from dad instead? Then there is no inconvenience for dad

That is another option. Heck, dad could hire a local teen to babysit and mom could pay the babysitter when she picks the child up.

[jumanji]

At the end of the day:

- 20 minutes late to drop-off a few times is not going to be considered contempt. But you will be seen as petty.
- Your being late for p/u will also not be seen as contempt. But neither will Dad's taking the child to work - and expecting you to pick him up there when you get off.
- Did your schedule change since the agreement/order? If not - why did you agree to that timing? His hours are irrelevant if you can't get the kid at the time specified.