Child Visitation

Child visitation is typically determined by the court in order to protect the emotional well-being of the child during a divorce or separation in which child custody terms must be established. Visitation terms seek to promote a healthy emotional relationship between the child and both custodial and non-custodial parents.

Often, the financial aspects of child support and its connection to visitation rights comes into question. Child support is determined by the financial needs of the children and the responsibility of both parents to provide pecuniary support. This aspect of a divorce or separation is typically treated as a separate issue, not meant to effect the terms of visitation. For example, a custodial parent must still obey the terms of visitation in the event that a non-custodial party is negligent in their support obligations.

Frustration of Child Visitation Rights

Frustration of child visitation rights occurs when one parent attempts to obstruct the rights of the other parent in an attempt to block visitation. This could happen on a very minimal scale, such as one parent manipulating the child’s schedule in order to complicate the visitation process. On the other hand, visitation is sometimes obstructed by one parent’s open refusal to allow visitation to the opposite parent. Unfortunately, these issues have sometimes ended in kidnapping. Frustration of child visitation rights on any level may be cause for the court to alter or terminate the conditions of visitation.

Supervised Visitation

In some cases a court may decide that the visitation rights of a parent must be conditional, thus ordering that child visitation may only take place under supervision. This may occur when a parent has shown to be abusive or neglectful of his/her children or when alcohol or drug addiction is on-going.

In cases of extreme behavior in which a child’s well being has been threatened by a parent, the court may either deny or withdraw all visitation rights. This is not the preferred outcome of the court, but essential in the most extreme cases. Ideally, the child-parent relationship is to be preserved in order to provide children with a stable emotional environment during an often complicated period.

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