My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Virginia
Background:
This comes after my ex-wife exercised her right to visit yesterday. The divorce decree states that she has parenting time between the times of 7pm and 9pm on the first and third Thursday of each month, which yesterday qualified as the first Thursday. I have sole physical custody of our son, as she chose to live 1.5 hours away. Typically before she would actually text me saying if and when she will be arriving, especially when she was running late. However, for whatever reason (probably one of the typical drama between recently divorced couples), she decided not to notify me this time or respond. Some possible explanations are two of our previous text exchanges was that she wanted to see our son earlier one Thursday (6:30 pm), which I told her she could not as his counseling session (in hopes to help him deal with divorce type issues, it's proactive and perhaps unnecessary, but I think he needs it. She disagrees and refuses to help pay for it, so I decided not to tell her where it takes place) interferes with that early time. She had chosen her visitation times herself, including in my opinion the odd first and third Thursday of the month setting (our son has gotten confused multiple times with when he can expect to see his mom as he is only 8 years old and just learning to understand time according to a calendar better).
Anyways, I chose my work place as the point for the exchange so that I could easily catch up on some work while she has her parenting time, so yesterday my son and I were waiting there at the lobby from 6:50 - 7:10. I sent a text inquiring if she even intends to show at 6:54pm and do not receive a reply on my phone the entire time I am in the lobby. By 7:10pm, I decide to not wait for her any longer, and go up to my office to do a little bit of work, where I let my son use my phone. Now the complications are that according to her phone she sent a text at 7:04pm stating that she arrived. However I did not receive the text message so had no way of knowing if she even intended to visit at all. While she has exercised her Thursday visits most of the time, there were two occasions when she did not in the past three months. The area of my workplace, because of my employer decided to employ some kind of jamming technology or at the very least the buildings are heavily shielded so cell phone coverage is pretty bad within. I cannot get a signal in my office most times, so do not see her text message when I checked again at 7:15pm. Finally at 7:25pm, I see her message, my phone stupidly didn't show any timestamp of when it was received, but once I see the message, I take my son back down so he can spend time with his mom.
Historically, I think I've generally always promoted my son's relationship with his mom. I had him initiate FaceTime calls with her on Wednesdays for a little and encouraged her to try to do it regularly, but she chose not to. Every effort I've made to have her be a consistent part of his life, she herself has turned down. During divorce proceedings (I know not really pertinent or usable), I suggested she see him every Thursday or every other Thursday instead of the first and third Thursday, yet she insisted first and third Thursdays. I suggested she see him one set weekend per month, but she declined that so the wording of the parenting time includes a nebulous mess of any other time both parents agree to, which has a very broad interpretation and difficult for me to really plan my and my son's schedule around without inevitably denying her requests to spend the weekend with her on occasion. I still do allow most of her requests, especially when we don't actually have plans or if I just feel like I could use a break from the stresses of a working single parent.
I know that this is a one time instance, so when she threatened in a text that she will call the police on me for parental kidnapping, I know there isn't likely to be any repercussion. Additionally, I have proof that I was actually there at the time waiting for her, as there are security camera footage, a badge in time for when my son and I went to my office, and a security guard who could be a witness to the whole timeline. But I wonder if this type of scenario continues to happen, could I be charged or face problems with the police. I suggested via text that she tries to be more proactive with her communication with me regarding logistics, so I actually know that she is coming or on her way, or ideally when expected time of arrival is.
On a side note, could I charge her with parental kidnapping or what can I do to prevent the following from happening? Sadly this did happen yesterday too. She decided all on her own to take her parenting time back at the end of the visit, so instead of returning our son to me by 9 pm as agreed on, she instead returned our son to me by 10pm (a full hour later. She received him only 30 minutes late and by her own timeline of texts, she was about 5 minutes late). 9 pm was agreed as the time because since she chose Thursday nights of all days, our son has school the next day, so needed to keep what I have as his routine which is to have him in bed by 9:30pm, and 30 minutes was the minimal time I felt I needed to have him wind down and prepare for bed (shower, brush teeth, bedtime story, etc.) so that he can be in bed by 9:30 and get enough sleep. Again it is currently an isolated incident, and I admit that I was considering letting her keep him for an extra 30 minutes this one time, but did not suggest it. She simply decided to text me at 9pm that she was going to return him later than the agreed 9pm.
Background:
This comes after my ex-wife exercised her right to visit yesterday. The divorce decree states that she has parenting time between the times of 7pm and 9pm on the first and third Thursday of each month, which yesterday qualified as the first Thursday. I have sole physical custody of our son, as she chose to live 1.5 hours away. Typically before she would actually text me saying if and when she will be arriving, especially when she was running late. However, for whatever reason (probably one of the typical drama between recently divorced couples), she decided not to notify me this time or respond. Some possible explanations are two of our previous text exchanges was that she wanted to see our son earlier one Thursday (6:30 pm), which I told her she could not as his counseling session (in hopes to help him deal with divorce type issues, it's proactive and perhaps unnecessary, but I think he needs it. She disagrees and refuses to help pay for it, so I decided not to tell her where it takes place) interferes with that early time. She had chosen her visitation times herself, including in my opinion the odd first and third Thursday of the month setting (our son has gotten confused multiple times with when he can expect to see his mom as he is only 8 years old and just learning to understand time according to a calendar better).
Anyways, I chose my work place as the point for the exchange so that I could easily catch up on some work while she has her parenting time, so yesterday my son and I were waiting there at the lobby from 6:50 - 7:10. I sent a text inquiring if she even intends to show at 6:54pm and do not receive a reply on my phone the entire time I am in the lobby. By 7:10pm, I decide to not wait for her any longer, and go up to my office to do a little bit of work, where I let my son use my phone. Now the complications are that according to her phone she sent a text at 7:04pm stating that she arrived. However I did not receive the text message so had no way of knowing if she even intended to visit at all. While she has exercised her Thursday visits most of the time, there were two occasions when she did not in the past three months. The area of my workplace, because of my employer decided to employ some kind of jamming technology or at the very least the buildings are heavily shielded so cell phone coverage is pretty bad within. I cannot get a signal in my office most times, so do not see her text message when I checked again at 7:15pm. Finally at 7:25pm, I see her message, my phone stupidly didn't show any timestamp of when it was received, but once I see the message, I take my son back down so he can spend time with his mom.
Historically, I think I've generally always promoted my son's relationship with his mom. I had him initiate FaceTime calls with her on Wednesdays for a little and encouraged her to try to do it regularly, but she chose not to. Every effort I've made to have her be a consistent part of his life, she herself has turned down. During divorce proceedings (I know not really pertinent or usable), I suggested she see him every Thursday or every other Thursday instead of the first and third Thursday, yet she insisted first and third Thursdays. I suggested she see him one set weekend per month, but she declined that so the wording of the parenting time includes a nebulous mess of any other time both parents agree to, which has a very broad interpretation and difficult for me to really plan my and my son's schedule around without inevitably denying her requests to spend the weekend with her on occasion. I still do allow most of her requests, especially when we don't actually have plans or if I just feel like I could use a break from the stresses of a working single parent.
I know that this is a one time instance, so when she threatened in a text that she will call the police on me for parental kidnapping, I know there isn't likely to be any repercussion. Additionally, I have proof that I was actually there at the time waiting for her, as there are security camera footage, a badge in time for when my son and I went to my office, and a security guard who could be a witness to the whole timeline. But I wonder if this type of scenario continues to happen, could I be charged or face problems with the police. I suggested via text that she tries to be more proactive with her communication with me regarding logistics, so I actually know that she is coming or on her way, or ideally when expected time of arrival is.
On a side note, could I charge her with parental kidnapping or what can I do to prevent the following from happening? Sadly this did happen yesterday too. She decided all on her own to take her parenting time back at the end of the visit, so instead of returning our son to me by 9 pm as agreed on, she instead returned our son to me by 10pm (a full hour later. She received him only 30 minutes late and by her own timeline of texts, she was about 5 minutes late). 9 pm was agreed as the time because since she chose Thursday nights of all days, our son has school the next day, so needed to keep what I have as his routine which is to have him in bed by 9:30pm, and 30 minutes was the minimal time I felt I needed to have him wind down and prepare for bed (shower, brush teeth, bedtime story, etc.) so that he can be in bed by 9:30 and get enough sleep. Again it is currently an isolated incident, and I admit that I was considering letting her keep him for an extra 30 minutes this one time, but did not suggest it. She simply decided to text me at 9pm that she was going to return him later than the agreed 9pm.
Custody and Visitation Issues: When Can You Have Your Ex- Charged With Parental Kidnapping
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