They Want To See Europe (and Mexico and Australia…)

Something that often comes up in child custody cases is the ability for either parent to travel with their minor children. This is an important issue that needs to be ironed out when determining custody time, as well as setting up a framework that will carry forward and assist the family in building what their new lives will look like. It is fairly common that a parent that may not have primary physical custody may get a month of custody in the summer, and/or will switch off major holidays, and/or gets spring and fall breaks. This sometimes involves travel - not just to places in the US, but also to places around the world. If the other parent gets nervous or jealous (and come on, I would be jealous if my entire family was going to Bora Bora and I was staying at home to work), they could use a vague custody agreement to prevent their children from going on what could be a once in a lifetime trip.

While it can be understandable that the non traveling parent would be concerned over safety, it may not be fair to everyone else involved if they are prevented from traveling due to unclear agreements over traveling. Adding a clause that outlines the process for traveling, both domestically and internationally, makes it clear and concise for everyone, and gives the parents a road map to plan trips during their parenting time. There’s also the issue of passports: your custody agreement should state clearly who gets to possess passports, and in what cases it can be entrusted to the other parent. This can get complicated when families have more than one passport- dual citizenship cases can become issues down the road if not determined clearly. It’s also a good idea to go ahead and draft documents that will allow the other parent to travel with their child, and vice versa.

Making memories with your children traveling and seeing cool things around the world is something that parents value, and could be a way to move forward after a divorce. Families that have less acrimonious divorces could consider traveling together as a family, even if that family doesn’t look like it used to. Regardless, making sure that your kids can be travelers should be something considered when setting up their custody.