The holiday season can be an extremely frustrating time for divorced parents. It can be difficult enough to schedule family get-togethers with extended family members, but when you also have to coordinate your plans with your former spouse, the situation can be even more difficult.
If your ex is refusing to abide by the terms of your visitation schedule, you can take him to court. The court can enforce visitation rights. If your ex consistently refuses to follow the terms of the visitation schedule, the court may ultimately decide to change the custody arrangement.
However, taking your ex to court over the holidays is usually not an ideal situation. In addition, courts are usually very full during this time of year, which can make it very tough to get a court date. It’s usually much better to see if you can work something out. Agreeing to alter your visitation schedule once for this holiday season may go a long way towards establishing some goodwill and may make it easier to work with him in the future. If you cannot agree, you can threaten to take him to court, which may be enough of a worry that he will agree to abide by the terms of your custody arrangement.
If your ex is going overboard on presents for your kids for Christmas, there’s normally not anything that you can do about that. A court normally would not step in in that situation. Although you may not like your children being showered with gifts, and you may feel that he is trying to buy their love away from you, remember that in the long run, who buys what is not important to children. If you have an amicable relationship, you may consider bringing up the gifts, but ultimately there is nothing you can do about that.