Vacation w/3 yr old out of state

[stpc4123]

I live in Florida and am the non-custodial parent of my three year old son, Sam. We have a marital settlement agreement that outlines our visitation schedules, and we have shared parental rights to Sam.

I had planned a vacation w/Sam to PA as all of my family lives there. My ex initially agreed to the trip but after the airline tickets were purchased, he said he would not allow Sam to go.

Can he stop me from taking him? If I go w/out his consent, can he say I violated the visitation order by keeping Sam from him on his visitation days while I am in PA?

Help

 

[momwithquestion]

I'm pretty sure that if your visitation is all written out that your childs father can't tell you that Sam isn't allowed to go.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by stpc4123:
I live in Florida and am the non-custodial parent of my three year old son, Sam. We have a marital settlement agreement that outlines our visitation schedules, and we have shared parental rights to Sam.

I had planned a vacation w/Sam to PA as all of my family lives there. My ex initially agreed to the trip but after the airline tickets were purchased, he said he would not allow Sam to go.

Can he stop me from taking him? If I go w/out his consent, can he say I violated the visitation order by keeping Sam from him on his visitation days while I am in PA?

My understanding is the same as was given to you regarding visitation being spelled out determines how visitation proceeds. If he agreed to allow you to go with your child on his visitation days and then "backed out" then you might also have a right to recover the money from the tickets you bought based upon your reliance of his statement that you could go! It would seem that your ex has a choice -- if he wants to attempt to prevent you from going he'll have to fork over the dough to reimburse you for not going!