Hi,
Does anyone know what my rights are as far as
the age at which my ds can make up his mind if he wants to visit his father? He is 11. My ex dh has already taken me to court about this as my ds is adamant he does not want to visit him, as he finds his father very intimidating and says he is a bully. We are divorced, and up until now the children have been visiting their father every other weekend, Friday night to Monday morning. My dd is 9 and she seems happy to go. When my dh took me to court, they told me that I had to 'make my children available'. It is very hard to 'make' my ds available when he is clearly distressed at the thought of going to spend the weekend with his father. So my ds continues not to go to his father's every other weekend, but my dd does.
The other issue is the fact that when my ex dh moved a little way out of town, we agreed that we would meet half way at a designated pick up point on Friday evenings and again on the following Monday morning (before school and work). This was a bit of a pain, to put it politely, but i went along with it as i guess i thought it was a compromise on my part. Then, he chose to move much further away to another town and he still wanted to meet half way fri to mon morning. Stupidly, i agreed. When i tried to stop this ridiculous arrangement by suggesting we change the access to Friday night to Sunday night as it was too much of a rush in busy traffic (and sometimes in early morning icy conditions) and making the children tired and causing them to not want to go to school in the morning, he threatened to take me to court. Which he did, so this problem + the fact that my ds does not want to visit were discussed in court and unforturnately, the court sided with my ex dh.
Recently, because my son does not want to speak to his father on the phone when he phones up to speak to him (he's angry at his father for taking his mother to court), he sent an email stating that he was not going to come to the pick up point even to collect his dd unless they phone him up beforehand to say they want to visit and then I'M to take them all the way over there myself !!
Also recently, i was without a car for about 2 months and in that time my ex dh did not come over to collect his daugher when it was 'his weekend'. I could not drive her to the meeting point. Why did he not come to get her? I also realised that the halfway point where we meet to drop off/pick up is not exactly half way as far as he's concerned because the time that we meet happens to be when he is either on his way from or to work, so he does not have to go much out of his way.
Please can anyone tell me what my rights are as far as drop off/pick up/travelling arrangements for access? Also, what rights I have as far as 'making my son available' for access? It is very difficult to find out information and rights as far as divorce/children's rights/access/travelling etc. Why is this the case? This sort of information should be readily available for anyone who wants to know.
There are other 'issues'...the court order is typed so badly that it does not make sense. Can i order a re-hearing because of this? My ex dh has told me i will be receiving a new copy 'in due course' and has been threatening me with more court action if i do not bring my son to meet him at the weekend. Can I take any action against his threatening, harrassing behaviour? Please help. Thanks.
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Access, travelling and children's rights
5 replies
gingerbiskit · 24/11/2010 19:37
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