How Difficult Is It to Get Your Unsupervised Parenting Time Back?
Florida courts have long held that it is in the best interests of children to spend ample time with both parents. Therefore, every parent who does not live with the other parent of his or her children has the right to a court-ordered parenting plan that guarantees that the children will spend certain days of the year with one parent and certain other days of the year with the other parent. Florida has recently enacted a rule that, when courts set parenting plans (this only happens when the parents cannot agree between themselves on a parenting plan), they should divide the parenting time as close to 50/50 as possible. In divorce cases, people make accusations all the time about their ex-spouses being unfit parents, but the court does not deprive parents of parenting time except in truly extraordinary circumstances where the court determines that it would be unsafe to do otherwise. The court’s usual response when it receives persuasive evidence that a parent provides inadequate supervision to a child is to order supervised parenting time, where another adult must also be present when the parent is with the children. A Boca Raton child custody lawyer can help you if the court has ordered supervised parenting time for you.
How Does Parenting Time Go From Unsupervised to Supervised and Back Again?
In most divorce cases, the parents agree to a parenting plan, and both parents are free to exercise their own reasonable judgment about parenting decisions during their parenting time. The court does not care that your ex lets the children eat too much junk food or play too many video games. The court will only order supervised parenting time in cases where the children are unsafe when they are with the parent. These are some possible reasons for parenting time:
- Domestic violence
- Substance abuse or the presence of illegal drugs in the home
- Leaving young children home alone for long periods of time
- Very unsafe driving while the children are in the car (DUI counts, and so does lack of age-appropriate car seats, but a garden variety traffic ticket for an illegal turn does not)
- Failure to provide needed medical care
Supervised parenting time should always be temporary. The court should hold a hearing every six months to see if you are ready to go back to unsupervised parenting time. While it does not have to give detailed instructions for what you must do each day, it should at least give you an idea of what you must do to get your unsupervised parenting time back, such as taking anger management classes or completing substance abuse treatment and taking a drug test every week.
Contact Schwartz | White About Restoring Your Unsupervised Parenting Time
A South Florida family law attorney can help you comply with parenting-related court orders so that you can avoid excessive restrictions on your parenting time. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7546750452221979476&q=divorce+magic&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2013&as_yhi=2023
