When you settle your child custody or visitation dispute, you hope that the matter is put to rest for good. You might feel confident that you and the other parent are off to a good start in raising your child together, but those successes can quickly be dashed when your co-parenting relationship becomes strained. The other parent might start disparaging you in front of the child, withholding access to the child, and creating a lot of conflict during exchanges.
What can you do about it?
Your first step might be to try to resolve the matter informally by simply talking to the other parent about the problem and the negative impact that it has caused to your child. This may work, but chances are that you’ll need to be more aggressive in protecting your child and your relationship with him or her.
Seeking modification
If your child’s other parent isn’t willing to play by the rules of your existing court order, or if his or her actions are simply detrimental to your child, then you might be justified in seeking a custody or visitation modification. In order to succeed in one of these modifications, though, you’re going to have to present evidence as to why your proposal is in your child’s best interests.
Therefore, you might need to be prepared to present testimony from your child’s therapist and other witnesses who can speak to the harm that is being caused to your child. Also, be sure to keep all communications with the other parent so that you can best demonstrate how he or she has been disrupting successful co-parenting.
Do you need a legal ally on your side?
Far too many Texans let their child’s other parent derail their co-parenting relationship. This can have a tremendously negative impact on the child and the parent-child relationship. Don’t let that happen to you. Instead, think about working closely with a family law firm that is devoted to protecting your child’s best interests.