After a difficult break-up or lengthy divorce, you are ready for a fresh start. While you share parenting time with your ex, you are the one with primary responsibility for the kids.
You are ready to move, heading back home to Oklahoma or to New Mexico for a new job opportunity. Maybe you just want to move to another part of Texas where you have family or a network of friends.
If you intend to move more than a county away from your current residence, you will typically need a custody modification before you can relocate with the children. The mistakes mentioned below could hurt your chances of getting court approval for that move.
You don’t include suggestions for keeping your ex involved
Even if you leave Texas, you may still be subject to a custody order until your children turn 18. When you request a relocation modification to your parenting plan, it’s important that you have some kind of realistic suggestions for keeping your ex involved with the kids.
Letting the children spend the summer with your ex could be one way to keep them actively involved with the children even if they live far apart.
Telling your ex that they will never see the kids again
Too many parents will use their children like weapons in a bitter divorce, which is as hard on the kids as it can be on the parents.
If your ex has text messages of you threatening to terminate their parenting time or voicemails where you tell them that you’re going to leave the state and never let them see the kids again, those things that you said in a moment of anger could hurt your chances of convincing the courts that a relocation will be good for you and the kids.
Making the children the focus of your move-away modification request will increase your chances of success.