Standard Visitation in Mississippi divorces
What is standard visitation?
Although shared physical custody is occurring more now than in the past, the typical child custody situation following divorce in Mississippi is an order of joint legal custody (decision-making authority) and primary physical custody to one parent with reasonable visitation to the other.
But what is “reasonable”? Most courts in Mississippi do not have written guidelines for visitation schedules. Reasonable visitation varies from case to case and the chancellor has a lot of discretion as to what is reasonable. The paramount test is “what is in the best interest of the child” and that can change depending on the age of the child. Some chancellors feel longer visits for younger children are not in the best interest of the child. Additionally, if you work the third shift Tuesday through Saturday or if you work four ten hour shifts at the hospital on varying days, an “every other weekend” approach may not work for you and your children.
That being said, a standard visitation schedule is often every other weekend from Friday evening through Sunday evening as well as one evening or overnight each week. Some parents even extend the weekend visitation to Monday mornings, when the non-custodial parent can deliver the child at school or daycare. Standard visitation also includes holidays and extended visitation in the summer. Again, the chancellor can deviate from this standard if it is not in the best interest of the child.
A good visitation schedule should be fairly detailed to avoid future conflicts. Parents will need to be flexible on occasions in which the schedule might not work. Almost every child custody order states that the non-custodial parent should have “liberal visitation” and barring such an agreement, then the standard visitation schedule applies.
Periodic agreed changes should be memorialized in writing to prevent confusion – an email will even work. To be enforceable, permanent changes to the visitation schedule must be approved by the court.
