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Plan summer visitation travel
in advance to avoid conflict
slide 2: Website: www.aprincewill.com Ph No. 905-492-7662
Summer holidays can be stressful for separated parents as custody
agreements built around the schooling of children no longer work but
careful advance planning can help avoid conflicts says Pickering family
lawyer Angela Princewill.
“Parents don’t have much time to travel with their children during the
school year so when drawing up separation agreements both sides
really need to think about the summer months” says Princewill
principal of AP Lawyers.
“You don’t want to create a schedule that just works for three seasons
then all of a sudden it’s the summer and you’re trying to change it” she
tells AdvocateDaily.com.
When developing a separation agreement Princewill says she tries to
anticipate what works best for the children and then for the parents.
“There’s no one best plan to do any of this” she says. “It’s really just
making sure the children’s best interest is at the centre of everything.”
Many factors have to be considered Princewill says including the age
of the children what lifestyle they were accustomed to before the
separation and the practicality of the plan.
Noting that summer is a unique time in a young person’s life she says
parents need to be flexible in case something unanticipated comes up.
Princewell says the separation agreement should spell out the
parents’ rights to take the children on vacation as well as whether they
need each other’s consent to take them out of the country.
slide 3: Website: www.aprincewill.com Ph No. 905-492-7662
“Even if your court-ordered separation agreement is silent on consent
it’s a good idea to get it in writing anyway — the last thing you want is
to be stuck at an airport because you don’t have the permission of the
other parent.”
If one parent has supervised access to the children he or she will not be
able to take them away for even a weekend she says adding that
“everyone has to be realistic and work within the existing restrictions.”
Princewill says many agreements stipulate that the parents have to let
each other know months in advance about their summer vacation plans
with the children but that part of the contract is often ignored.
“I see this happening quite often as people forget about these
provisions. Then comes August and there’s conflict” she says.
For example one parent may have already enrolled the children in a
summer camp when the other parent was hoping to travel says
Princewill.
“If separated parents don’t give sufficient notice of their plans the other
parent may have registered the kids for other activities and some of
these registration costs are non-refundable” she says.
Existing custody agreements may have to be modified in the summer as
there will not be after-school pickup in July and August Princewill says.
“Conflicts arise when one parent doesn’t want the other to come to their
home so that has to be thought about in advance with other
arrangements in place.”
slide 4: Website: www.aprincewill.com Ph No. 905-492-7662
She says all these issues can be avoided by working with a family law
lawyer on a comprehensive arrangement.
“When drawing up an agreement make sure you review the terms and
do everything to minimize conflict because the less conflict between the
parents the better it is for the children” Princewill says.
Source: https://www.aprincewill.com/plan-summer-visitation-travel-in-
advance-to-avoid-conflict/