When two parents live so far away from each other that it renders child custody visits impossible. If the parents live on opposite sides of the country, one way around this problem could involve using holidays and three-day weekends as times when the children can visit with the noncustodial parent. Many parents organize long-distance holiday schedules in circumstances like this.
If you’re trying to create a long-distance holiday schedule, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Three-day weekends: There are multiple three-day weekends throughout the school year that parents can use strategically to send the children to the noncustodial parent for a quick visit.
- Spring and fall breaks: The parents may want to share spring and fall break with each parent getting the children during one of these vacation times.
- Winter break and Christmas: The children may have an extended period of time away from school during winter, Christmas and New Year’s. The parents might divide this time half-and-half or come up with some other arrangement.
- Thanksgiving: Many parents will share Thanksgiving and Christmas. Often, whichever parent got the kids during Thanksgiving will not have them for Christmas and the parents may take turns each year with these holidays.
- Deciding who pays for travel: The parents might make arrangements to have one parent pay for travel, or they might split the expenses. Either way, the matter of who pays for transportation and who will escort the children – or how the children shall be delivered — should be organized in advance.
If you want to set up a holiday parenting schedule to ensure your children get to spend time with a parent who lives far away, this is perfectly feasible to arrange while you’re drafting your child custody and parenting agreements.
Source: CustodyXChange, “Long Distance Custody and Visitation Schedules,” accessed June 01, 2018