How To Exchange Child With Restraining Order
Co Parenting With A No Contact Order
When you divorce a spouse that was violent or abusive, it can be challenging to co-parent with them. It is more complicated if you have a protection order against them. The goal of having a protection order is to ensure you are safe. Sometimes a court may add your children to the protection order too.
But there are various methods you can use to continue co-parenting even if a protection order exists. A trusted attorney can better inform you about how to co-parent with a restraining order in Texas.
How To Communicate
3rd Party Communication For Divorced Parents
Any person with a restraining order against them is not allowed to talk to the person that the restraining order aims to protect. But the only way to co-parent is through communication between the parents. You can overcome this challenge by:
- Ask your friends or relatives to facilitate communication between you and the other parent. Make sure the friend or relative is someone you trust
- Another alternative is to request communications through third-party platforms such as Talking Parents and Civil Communicator. You need to make this request when the protection order is issued.
- Any communication you have with the other parent should be strictly about the children. But most of the time a protection order does not allow conversations about the children.
Exchanging Your Children For Parenting Time
Rules Restraining Order Against Parents
Since your children will also be spending time with the other parent, it means that you have to exchange them with the other parent. This can be tricky if a protection order exists. You can do the following:
- Ask a trusted friend or family member to take the child to the other co-parent
- Hire third-party services to facilitate the exchange for you. For example, you can hire the Central Visitation Program to do the time exchanges for you
- Sometimes courts allow parents to hand over the children to each other on the protection order. But the order specifies the location where the exchange should happen such as a police station. This exception is rarely included in a protection order.
Going To Children’s Events
Restraining Order Against Father Of Child
Protection orders include distance requirements, which can complicate things if both parents attend birthday parties, sporting games, and parent-teacher conferences involving their children. You can overcome this in the following ways:
- Alternate your attendance of events so that there is no violation of the order
- Arrange in advance when you will arrive at an event and the location where you will sit
- The law expects the restrained part to strictly maintain the distance requirement or face consequences even if the violation was accidental. But the protected parent should also avoid violating the protection order because this could be used to prove in court that they are not really concerned about their safety.
- Even if the restricted parent invites you to violate the restrictions, you should say no
Co-parenting can be tough especially if you are still mentally scarred from the events that happened when you were still married to your spouse. Getting counseling when you feel overwhelmed can make it easier. You should also talk to your lawyer when you suspect the other parent is trying to create obstacles between you and your children.