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I have recently been granted a contact order for my 4 year old daughter, The court has issued dates for this years summer holiday which is spread out each week until the following year where contact will be shared equally but left to us to agree date etc.
I have been given a max number of 4 nights at one point durng the hols and the rest is weekly for 2 nights or 3 nights.
Myself and family want to go away and i know that my ex wont agree to alter the arrangemnt or be flexible for me to take her this year as the feelings are still fresh from the contact order being granted. There is a time in the holidays when i dont have my daughter for 7 days and would most likely go away. What would happen if my ex wants to be difficult and not agree to change the time or change to the next day when i would supposedly have my daughter in relation to the specific contact order, would i be in breach if i attempted to be flexible an give her enough notice of the change.
Hi there
Firstly welcome to the Dadtalk site. I hope you are going to find it helpful. In an ideal world, even though you have a rigid contact order in place, it would be beneficial when holiday periods come up, especially if there could be a degree of flexibility over your daughter. Holidays are special, they are times when we can get away and involve ourselves totally with our kids, without the pressures and distractions of everyday life.
I will pass on your query to the Children's Legal Centre for their response. As it is Friday now it may not be until next week before you get a reply, so watch out for it.
I hope this helps.
Hi
Unfortunately, the fact that you have got a contact order means that you probably weren't able to come to an agreement on contact, and if it's recent, your ex is almost certainly not going to agree to vary the order (in fact, unless the contact order states that she can do so by agreement, strictly speaking she would be in contempt if she did agree to change it, though if there was evidence that you both agreed to change it, then a court wouldn't realistically do anything). The contact order basically means that your ex has to have your daughter available for contact at the times stated, you aren't going to be held in contempt if you don't turn up, especially if you have given her plenty of notice. I'm not sure whether she is obliged to bring her to contact a day late if it's still within the time you'd normally have contact until the normal time you'd hand her back.
However, I would consider whether you can change or shorten your holiday so that contact continues as normal - if your ex is bitter about the proceedings, you can be sure that she's not going to come to your defence if you miss or shorten contact, especially so soon after the order has been granted. The contact order gives your daughter a fixed and regular contact time, so, in my opinion, you really don't want to be doing anything that shakes her belief in how important she is to you.
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