Creating Effective Visitation Plans for Young Children in Oklahoma
Oklahoma’s recommended visitation schedule for children age three to five. I’m Tulsa attorney James Wirth. We’re doing a series of videos related to the advisory guidelines for visitation schedules in the state of Oklahoma. This goes back to 2004 where the legislature passed a law requiring that the administrative director of courts come up with advisory guidelines for visitation.
Two reasons for that. One, want to determine what is typically in the best interest of the child relating to visitation and contact with parents based on current science. And also to try to have some uniformity between judge and judge and county and county. It accomplished the first a little bit, not so much on the second. There’s still not a lot of uniformity from county to county. Different judges like different schedules. More different counties handle it differently.
Understanding Children Ages 3-5
It notes a couple things up front. One, nightmares become common at this stage. Children are impulsive at this age and have very concrete thinking. Sometimes it notes they may say and they believe what the parent wants to hear. It’s important to remember that this does not necessarily reflect the child’s real experience.
If the child reports parental behavior that causes concern, discuss the matter with the other parent to resolve the misunderstanding. So it notes that it is common for children to perhaps talk about things that cause concern that may not be real things at this stage. So if there are issues that are brought up, obviously you want to investigate that, but don’t make a presumption, don’t presume that the other parent is doing something wrong just because of what the child said at this age, noting these things.
Recommended Visitation Schedule
If one parent was minimally involved in the child’s daily routine, a few days each week, including a full weekend day, will allow the relationship and caregiving skills to develop. As the child becomes more comfortable moving between two homes, additional time and one or two overnights may be added.
If both parents are working outside of the home and the time separation, at the time of separation, and the child is in daycare, parents might consider splitting each weekend so that the child has one full stay-at-home day and overnight with each parent each weekend, as well as some weekday contact. While this may not be the best situation for the parents, it notes that it is helpful to many young children in the early stages of the separation.
Free Initial Strategy Session
If you’re dealing with this circumstance, though, you’re not just gonna wanna talk to information from a video. You wanna review these guidelines yourself, but even that’s not enough. You’re gonna wanna talk to a Tulsa child custody attorney privately, confidentially, about your specific circumstances in order to receive legal advice. To get that schedule with a Tulsa attorney at Wirth Law Office, you can go online to makelaweasy.com or call 918-879-1681 to schedule a low-cost initial strategy session.
