Father does not show up on time for his scheduled visit

Rhondaj · Joined: 16 Mar 2009 Posts: 2 State or Province: Illinois

Hi Ladies!

I need some advise on what to do. The childrens father is to have visitation two weekends a month. We have a schedule for all of 2009, so he knows when his weekends are. Some weekends he never shows up at all and other weekends he shows up on Saturday instead of Friday at 6:00 like he is scheduled. The hardest part of this, other than explaining to the children, is making any plans for those weekends. He is also behind on his support payments, as he keeps changing jobs. I am documenting every instance of his tardyness. I just cannot afford to keep taking him to court repeatedly. I am in Illinois and just wondering what you ladies think I should do. Can he lose his visitation rights or at least have them reduced if he keeps this up? Thank you!

Still in Love · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:39 am Post subject:

Yes he can... When my ex and I were in the same state (California) there was a 30 minute rule... if he was thirty minutes late with no call or advanced notice of a different schedule that had been worked out, then he could not expect his son to be there waiting.

Send him a written letter with his schedule in it and let him know that he needs to give you advanced notice if he is going to be deviating from his scheduled pick up and drop off times and if he doesn't and still fails to show up then you will be making other plans with the children.

Does he pay through you or the state and then the state sends it to you? If it is to you directly, just go to the courts and request that they have the money sent to them first and it is garnished from his check... that way if he switches jobs and falls behind it will be calculated by the courts and arreages will be applied.