Comment from robin
Time: May 3, 2008, 1:43 pm

I am considering for one summer to change the visiting arrangements so that our daughter can spend more time with her dad on weekends and work with me in the summer;however, I am not sure how it will work so I really don’t know if I should make it legal or just get a verbal and a written statement that it is a trial for this summer only.

Comment from papa
Time: May 3, 2008, 2:46 pm

Hi Robin,

The courts virtually always encourage moms and dads to work out their own agreements and will approve most agreements as long as they are in the child’s best interest. It’s not necessary, though, to get the court’s approval. And, although that’s obvious, it seems that that can get forgotten in situations of conflict.

You and your ex are permitted, of course, to try out a temporary visitation arrangement as long as you both agree on it. When you say “make it legal,” I take that to mean have a Judge sign-off on the terms in an Order. So, yea, just give it a trial-run as long as you both agree on it…..

Good luck Robin.

Comment from Tony
Time: May 20, 2008, 11:33 am

My son recently had a baby girl with his girlfriend at the time. She is only 3 weeks old now. Last weekend the mother became furious that my son would not take her out drinking. He doesnt want to do that anymore, he just wants to be a good dad. She left the baby with my son and me for the night. The next morning she came back, slept it off, took the baby and left. Now she will not allow my son to see the baby at all. There is no formal custody yet, so what is the default custody assumed in Idaho, and how can he enforce his right to have his daughter 50% of the time without months of court?

Comment from papa
Time: May 20, 2008, 1:07 pm

Hi Tony, as it stands right now, things haven’t been through the courts… and, unless your son’s girlfriend changes her mind and chooses to cooperate, your son is going to have to take this to family court if he’s to have a relationship with his daughter …….

As far as the default custody assumed in Idaho… I wouldn’t really think of it that way… see, in my opinion, I just wouldn’t think of it that way, because, for all practical purposes what has to happen is your son is going to have to take her to court…. she won’t let him see his child; so, there’s no other choice …..

And, the Judge is going to determine both custody and child support……. if your son can demonstrate that the best interest of the girl is an arrangement in which he has residential custody, he may be able to accomplish this …… try to document any fucked-up behavior that you can on the mother’s part if this sort of thing is a goal ……….

Also, Tony, let me tell you that I am not an attorney, and, my advice is based on my personal experience with the system and the books I’ve read…

… you can, however, have a lawyer answer your questions for cheap by following this link here:
http://www.princedaddy.com/family-law-questions-answered-for-a-fee/

A lot of my readers have been very happy with this service… in fact, I’ve yet to hear one negative report…. you see, if you don’t think they did a good job in answering you, you don’t have to pay…….

good luck and stop back to update us!

papa d