As Coronavirus makes it way into our corner of the world, parenting a child or children with someone you no longer live with is fresh territory. I have already had calls about following Court Orders and cases where a parent is taking a position that the children stay in one home and away from the other’s household.
Let’s be clear. In fact, let’s be crystal clear:
Covid-19 is 'not an excuse' to cut another parent out.
When the Courts re-open there will be hundreds of cases where one parent has opportunistically and without merit deprived the other parent of time with their children. Your inability to determine what is a true emergency requiring quarantine will be scrutinized. Your refusal to abide by existing Court Orders will be examined critically.
If you don’t yet have a parenting Order, this is your time to shine and show the Courts that you can employ common sense and that you are willing to work with your co-parent, respect their relationship with your children and foster that relationship.
I implore you to not utilize our public health emergency to try to vary your parenting orders as you wish.
Some of the unique circumstances that I can think of which may require a variation:
Children have just arrived home from a March Break holiday and are quarantined for fourteen days;
A parent is working in an essential service and a child is immunosuppressed;
A parent is immunosuppressed and the other parent is working in an essential service, thereby exposing children to the virus; and
A parent’s travel outside of your County for work which would expose him or her to a larger and new group of people.
Again, this is not an exhaustive list. As with any family law issue, your particular family circumstances are unique and call for a detailed and hand crafted solution that meet your needs.
My advice to my clientele is that if you cannot maintain a parenting arrangement, Order or agreement, you need to make sure the other parent’s time is made up when it is safe to do so.
In the interim, you should be arranging telephone calls and wherever possible Facetime, Skype or any other video calling applications.
"It is not about cutting that other parent out, it is about keeping everyone safe."
Your children do not have the cognitive and reasoning skills to understand what is going on. It is your responsibility as a parent to keep them safe, calm and set an example for them of conflict resolution.
If you are a client of AGFL, Tabindah and I have phone appointments available and should have our video-conferencing set up by next week.
Stay healthy!
Mandy
I am not a doctor, a virologist or public safety official. These are my thoughts and I am awaiting confirmation from the appropriate specialists to confirm my position. This is not intended to be legal advice for anyone who is not currently a client of Amanda Gaw Family Law.