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It is very difficult for many parents to imagine a holiday without their child. Unfortunately, for parents who don’t live together, it is usually inevitable that their child will be gone for all or part of the holiday. To protect your holiday time with your child, whether it be a part of each holiday every year, or the entire holiday on alternating years (or some variation thereof) it is essential that your parenting time order set out specific details about when your child will be with you and when your child will be with her other parent.
For parents in the process of a divorce, many holidays may come and go without any formal orders regarding where your child should be on the holidays. This can put the parent who doesn’t have the child living with him (or her) at a huge disadvantage. It is well worth the time to try to reach an agreement on how the holidays will be shared, and to the extent possible, have that agreement formalized so it is binding. If your divorce is pending, but you and the child’s other parent reached an agreement, the Court is often willing to make that agreement the order of the Court. Sometimes the Court will also permit the parties to have a hearing on the issue, although it is best to bring up the issue at your temporary orders hearing if you have one scheduled. Once orders are issued, they are generally; binding unless and until they are changed.
When trying to reach an agreement on the holidays, or when asking for orders from the Court, it is important to be as detailed as possible regarding precise date and time of the exchange, who will be picking the child up, dropping the child off, and where will the exchange take place. The more detail, the less room there is to debate or create conflict on the day of the holiday. The intended result is that whatever time you do secure with your child on the holidays is protected.
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