[Solved] Amount of Contact Time for a 1 year old

Hi there,

Will you be returning to court or have you had the final heaing?

If the contact you have at the moment is part of an interim contact order and you are set to return to court, then you could ask for a timetable of increasing contact. This would be a plan to increase the contact over time which would reach a point when your child is around the age of two to two and half, when you would expect to be having him weekly once or twice and overnight on friday and saturday on alternate weekends. Also you could ask to have him for alternate birthdays, easter and christmas, and also a week or two during the summer to incorporate a family holiday.

I dont understand why the contact mid week is supervised and yet the time you have on saturday is unsupervised... if you can be trusted to have unsupervised contact then that should apply to all your alloted time together.

It really depends on the Judge I think, at that age they are still considered very very young & largely dependent on their mother & a stable consistent routine/ environment. For example, sleeping in the same bed every night. If they are still waking in the night or just recently started sleeping through the night it would just be deemed too disruptive to spend a night or 2 every fortnight in a different place. I have read legal docs that recommend no overnight stays until at least 3+ years old, I've also knows dads be granted it for babies.....it really comes down t the judge on the day I think.

...I agree, judges are a law unto themselves and their rulings can be as individual as they are! .... but I also think its reasonable to propose a gradual, planned increase in contact, which takes into account the changing needs of the child. I think asking for this to be implemented over a period of eighteen months is fair and illustrates that the father has thought about the implications and is accommodating them in the best interests of the child.

Thanks for the replies,

Yes I have an interim contact order at the moment, the problem I keep having is that I have tried before proposing a timetable of gradual increased contact as he grows older but am always met with a "we'll see" by my ex-partner. This is the problem I think many separated dads face ,do you just wait and do nothing to see if your contact improves or do you pursue it legally. The reason for supervised contact on a wednesday is because I can't get back from work any earlier then 5pm (I leave early but I have an hours drive), as much as I would like time without my partner looking over my shoulder it's not great for his evening routine, I'm hoping when the summer comes I can at least take him out in the push chair.

...Your ex may sideline the timetable for gradual increase of contact but ultimately it will be the courts decision, and they will accept that contact should increase with the age of the child. Its called defined contact and its well worth putting the proposal forward at the next hearing.

The more definition you have in the final contact order, the better and I think it likely that the courts prefer to cover all the bases to avoid the neccessity for a continued return to court to vary the contact order, just to accommodate every progression.

Reading this topic with interest. My son is going to court in March for his interim meeting and was wondering what was deemed appropriate to ask for. I know his ex will be difficult as all contact has been stopped since September of last year. His child is now 14 months old.

I understand what people mean about the child being away from the mum but surely it is better for the child to have a routine where they are left with the dad. I dread to think how my grandchild will be when she is taken away from her mum for our visits but there again, she has been in relationships since the child was 6 months old, so is probably used to being left with other family members whilst the mother goes out.

I would say that your son needs to be looking at a small amount of contact at first, possibly supervised, to build up a bond, and then increase this over the next few months to days and then possibly overnight stays. Write up a schedule of increasing contact over the next 3 or 4 years and try to get that written into the contact order - this will save going back to court for a variation in the contact order as the child grows older.

On my interim order in Dec 2012,when my son was only 9 months old I went in for and got 2 overnight stays per week and 3 overnights every 7 weeks.
I went in with Cafcass to mediate before the first court hearing for contact and cafcass where very happy with the arrangements and the court totally agreed.

Its just a shame she has constantly breached the order and I've lived in the courts ata cost of £1000's just to get it enfoced,but thats another story in my first post here.