Imagine a judge awards you with full physical custody of your children and awards your ex-spouse with visitation rights; however, your ex hasn’t once shown up to exercise his or her custody rights. Should you file a lawsuit to revoke or limit your ex’s visitation rights? Or, should you be patient and hope that your ex later develops an interest in your children — which would probably be the healthiest situation for your children in the long run?
Many family law attorneys actually discourage parents from attempting to revoke or limit the other parent’s visitation rights. This is because, no matter how bad or irresponsible your ex happens to be, your children may not understand or forgive you for taking such an action. A more recommendable course of action is to take whatever action is necessary to help support and foster a better relationship between yourself and your ex. Doing so will help safeguard your children from feeling unwanted or unloved, and prevent them from suffering from the hurt and pain that goes along with such feelings.
The truth of the matter is that when parents can swallow their pride and maintain a friendly relationship with one another, the noncustodial parent will be more inclined to visit and spend time with his or her children. As such, one of the best things that any noncustodial parent can do is to make child visits as easy and friendly as possible.
If you are concerned about a parent who isn’t taking action to exercise his or her visitation rights with your kids, you may want to seek legal counsel to address the issue in a diplomatic and thoughtful manner.
