Help!! Any Family Law Lawyers amongst us? I need some help interpreting part of a legal custody document…?
"Should either parent require childcare for ten or more hours while the child is in his/her physical care,the other parent shall have first option to provide such care".
My daughter drops her toddler at day care at 745am. She usually is able to pick her up her baby before or at the 10hr mark. However does the wording of the above custody order imply that the father has the legal right to pick up the baby as early as he wants from day care once he determines that the baby will be in daycare over 10hours
4 Responses
bethbird1960
14 Feb 2010
jesipy
14 Feb 2010
i think it means that instead of going to day care, he has the option to provide the care instead.
coldgreyash
14 Feb 2010
It means he has the option to provide the day care for the other parent – meaning if the baby has to be at day care for ten hours or MORE, you have the option to say you will care for the child – he can pick them up from the day care and take care of them until she can pick the baby up from him.
ONLY if she leaves the baby for ten hours or more on a regular basis – and he has to do it on a regular basis, just like if he was the day care worker… he has to pick the baby up at the same time and every day.
kanerosnov
14 Feb 2010
As you probably already suspect there is a potential issue here. The wording is likely intended to mean that the father could take the child and care for it on any day that the child will be in childcare for ten or more hours. What the agreement does not state is whether the parent must notify the other parent that the child will be in childcare for ten or more hours. I would not read this to suggest that either parent could pick the child up from day care, but rather that the parent could, if notified the child would be in childcare for ten hours or more, pick the child up from the other parent and by-pass the childcare arrangement.
If you have a attorney who handled this or a domestic court to call, you should ask for a clarification. I don’t take the order as permission to just take the child. I do see it as the option of the other parent making arrangements to have the child for the period where the other parent would be unable to have the child rather than a placement facility if the child will be away for 10 or more hours as a job or other need, then the father would be able to request to have the child on those time periods. For instance , he may work 11 to 7 and wish to keep his child from 8 to 6 if he wished to rather than have the child in daycare. He may get off weekdays instead of weekends and the care would interfere with days he could have custody to be with his child with quality time. Domestic Relations would be able to help with this and you should have a office in your area. I am not a lawyer, just have had domestic relations classes and lived through it as a child of a divorced family.