Divorce Advice for Men | Fathers Rights Divorce | Child Custody

By Illinois Fathers

In an historic move, Illinois unanimously passed the ‘Right of First Refusal’ on May 22 (HB2992, 98^th Session).

Illinois becomes the first state to explicitly call for consideration of the ‘Right of First Refusal’ in a parenting plan or court order. 

It will be added as Section 602.3 to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. The bill is currently on the governor’s desk for his expected signature. 

‘Right of First Refusal’ is a guarantee that anytime a parent needs someone to watch the children, they must ask the other parent first. This gives a parent the opportunity to watch the children when the other parent has them.

Question:

In my parenting plan it reads the father will have two uninterrupted weeks during the summer.

One of the weeks we agreed to will start on a weekend they are with me. The problem is the next weekend is not my planned weekend with them but is Father's Day so I will have my kids again.

My question is would my uninterrupted week start when I picked them up for my weekend or at the end of my weekend?

By Julie Garrison

Special to DadsDivorce.com

After surviving your divorce with your first post-divorce Christmas looming ahead, many divorced dads are trying to figure out how to celebrate it with your children.

Your actions can make the differences between a stressful holiday and a happy one.

Here is what one child of divorce had to say about holiday time:

By Katherine V. Lewis

Cordell & Cordell Divorce Lawyer

Although the holidays are generally a happy time, they can often be a source of increased difficulty and stress for parents and children going through a divorce and even those who have already gone through a divorce.

For parents who have not completed the divorce process and do not have a court order in place, it is critical to plan ahead and agree to a parenting time schedule well in advance, including specific dates and times, as well as exchange locations.

The more specific a schedule is, the less likely there will be conflict.

Question:

My ex-wife likes to "reinterpret" the parenting time guidelines as she sees fit for our young child.

We live several hours apart and have normal visitation, according to our state's child custody laws: every other weekend and four non-consecutive weeks out of the year.

I pick my child up on Friday of the scheduled weekend and then extended parenting time is from Sunday at 4 pm to the following Sunday at 4 pm, which accumulates to 11 days total that month.

She says "when distance is a major factor" that parenting time cannot exceed eight days.

I just want to know who is right so that no one is in contempt.