Son wishing to take child abroad for a week

[Anna713]

My son has a child arrangement order for his daughter . She lives solely with my son and sees her mother twice a week for a couple of hours. No overnights with her mother. My son wants to take his daughter on holiday for a week. The court order states he must let his ex wife know about his plans 24 days before the holiday. Could his exwife potentially stop the holiday? They are in England and my son is thinking of taking his daughter to Spain for a week.

Do you think she would try to stop it? Is the child's passport in the same surname as your son?

Strictly speaking she can stop it as it out of the juristriction of England and Wales. No child is supposed to go out of the country without written permission of the other parent or permission of a family court order if the parent doesn't agree.

Yes that means that the courts can also stop the parent taking the child if the other parent raises an objection. This goes both ways even with the absent parent.

However it is highly unlikely the other parent will know to go to court or beable to get it in court quick enough if the other parent isn't told until nearer the time, and/or they are likely to object

If he has a child arrangements order it should state that he can take her out of the country for 28 days without her consent.

If the CAO states that his daughter is to live with him, he can take her out of the country for up to one month without needing the mother's consent. She could still try to get an order preventing the holiday, but she would not succeed in stopping a genuine holiday. The only way she would get an order is if she had evidence that your son was intending to take his daughter out of the country permanently.

This is true.

however will the holiday be over the mums time.
if so, you would be cutting her contact so that will need to be agreed.

maybe offer other days to make up for the time she has lost

Thanks all. My son has his daughter's passport and they have the same surname. The only problem then might be that it is cutting down on his daughter's time with her mum. She doesn't always want to see her Mum anyway so hopefully there won't be a lot her mum can do. My dgd is 14 so she does have some say.

@Anna713as your dgd is 14 there won't be a problem. She is not a young child now

At 14 the court order is pretty much moot. Tell him not to stress.

Thanks all. Very helpful info.

Hi there, it does cut into mums time so time should be offered in advance to make it up with a few dates suggested that work for you granddaughter . Then good to go and book and take the court order with him to the airport just in case he's challenged but it's highly unlikely.

I think he should be offering additional contact to make up for time lost on the holiday but I understand that its up to his dd to use the time or not. Would his mum have form for trying to sabotage something like a holiday for her dd?

Oh blimey, she's 14. That makes such a difference. There won't be any problems at all. I thought you were talking about a much younger child.

I agree that he should offer forward additional contact time eg in August.