
Quoting
spokanedriver
Here are some answers
1. Are you certain your divorce decree or custody/visitation order says nothing about travel with the child out of the state or country? It is incredibly common for such decrees/orders to prohibit either parent from taking the child out of the state without either the other parent's written consent or a court order. I am sure. There is no mention of travel restrictions in writing in our decree. I wish there was, our children have been taken out of state for recreational reasons
2. Are you suggesting that taking your child to another country during a global pandemic is not a "major decision"? Does the decree/order define "major decisions"? Nothing is defined by "major decison" Section 4.2 only states Major Decisions Major decisions regarding each child shall be made as follows: (then the different items such as education, diet, things of the sort). And I'm stating that the dangers of this "pandemic" are perhaps not worth the cost of not exploring the world and that the other parent perhaps is using majority custody for their choices but not making equal decisions on my behalf
3. Was your decree/order the result of an agreement between you and the other parent that was submitted to the court for rubber-stamping? Or was it imposed by the court? This was imposed, primarily by her legal staff and myself. When we were going through this I didn't really have the ability of paying for legal counsel and she did
4. Does your child presently have a valid passport? Yes, the other parent and I went to get the passport together specifically because this trip was coming up. We went to get the passport probably around Feb. or so
5. You wrote that, "in the past, the other parent was ok with [you] taking this trip." Did he/she express her agreement in writing? Was it something that he/she signed? When did this occur? Writing by hand, no, but through email, yes. I have several emails regarding this trip that both parents were in agreement. All the way up to me starting my week of time with the child starting a few hours early in order to check in for an international flight
6. When you wrote that the other parent has now expressed that he/she does not agree with your travel plans, what exactly did he/she say or write? Is this something more than, "hey, Bob, I'm not sure this is such a good idea anymore"? "I'm not comfortable with traveling out of the country" Should I ask specifically if the trip is being forbidden?
7. Have you purchased non-refundable tickets, and are you planning on flying or driving? We were planning on flying. Our airline has set their own safety precautions, and we had splurged on cost and were flying first class for this special occasion, which would have provided more space. A portion of the tickets are able to be be used in the future, but there is a portion of the tickets that are non refundable
Because this has medical professionals saying it is safe while others are saying it is not, that is why this is a big issue. If it was, for example, an earthquake that has no questions of its damage then that is one thing. But this is something that some are saying is relative to a seasonal cold, albeit a little worse, where others are saying it's horrible. And if medical staff is saying that exposure helps build immunity, we should be taking this trip regardless of the illness. But to say we should wait until there's a vaccine can't be right, I believe Washington is a state that allows parents to choose whether vaccines are in the best interest in their family or not. That is not to dispute vaccines or not, but simply to say that it doesn't seem Washington would enforce such a vaccine anyway as requirement.
Basically, both sides are making strong points for and against this virus. The other parent is making choices of exposure, but forbidding my option