Your Ex-Spouse Can Only Stop You From Relocating If It Is In Your Child’s Best Interest To Stay In South Florida
If you and your ex-spouse have a healthy co-parenting relationship in the first years after your divorce, you are right to be thankful, but there may still be co-parenting challenges that lie ahead. It is easy enough to divide parenting time approximately equally when your child is preschool-aged and both parents’ extended families live nearby. The real challenges happen when the child starts going to school and stepparents, with the whole new set of extended families, enter the picture. If you decide to move away from South Florida to be closer to your new in-laws or your spouse’s new job, you might see a side of your ex-spouse that you never knew existed. Your ex might try to convince the court that you only care about money or about your new spouse and that your main motivation is to sabotage your child’s relationship with your ex-spouse; even worse, your ex might say these things to your child. There is no escaping the fact that, if you are co-parenting a child with your ex-spouse according to a court-ordered parenting plan, you need the court’s permission to relocate, but a Palm Beach County child custody lawyer can make the process easier and less painful.
When the Court Only Pays Attention to One Spouse’s Side of the Story
Kristy and Jacinto separated when their son was three years old and divorced when he was five. Their parenting plan had him spending two nights with Jacinto some weeks and four nights with him on the other weeks. On paper, this arrangement worked well. The child’s school was in the same building as Kristy’s work, and Jacinto lived a short drive away. In reality, though, Jacinto did not drive the child to school during his parenting time, because his work started early. Before work, Jacinto would drive to his mother’s house, 45 minutes away, and the child’s grandmother would take him on another 45-minute drive back to the school. The school offered early morning care, but Jacinto refused to pay for it. Likewise, Jacinto’s wife could not drive the child to school, because she was busy caring for a new baby.
From the time she and Jacinto separated until she remarried, Kristy lived in a one-bedroom apartment with her grandparents and uncle. She received no financial support from Jacinto until the court ordered him to pay it. After Kristy remarried, her husband got a job as a firefighter in St. Lucie County, 135 miles away from Jacinto’s residence in Miami. Kristy petitioned the court for a new parenting plan that enabled her to relocate, but Jacinto refused. Jacinto, along with his wife, mother, and sisters, testified, presenting an idyllic life that the child led with his father’s side of the family. What they didn’t say was how Jacinto’s refusal to put the child’s interests ahead of his own convenience and financial comfort had put Kristy in a situation where moving to St. Lucie County with her new husband was almost the only option. Even the appeals court could not find an easy solution for the family.
Contact Us Today for Help
A Boca Raton divorce lawyer can help you make the court see through your ex-spouse’s lies about your allegedly ulterior motives for moving away from South Florida with your child. Contact Schwartz | White for help today.
Resource:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9118286408236643061&q=divorce+shepherd&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2011&as_yhi=2021
