Q: Can I be held in contempt of court for refusing to take my children from out of state during a pandemic
I live in Florida and my kids live in Virginia. I am supposed to take them for spring break, but considering the current pandemic situation and with the checkpoints at the Florida state border I felt it was unsafe for the kids to be traveling. I am an essential worker and have frequent contact with people and their belongings on a daily basis and do not want to expose my children to anything. We would have had to travel through 3 different states each to meet halfway in South Carolina and would most likely have to be quarantined for two weeks upon my return from picking them up. I only get them for a week and would have to break quarantine at risk of imprisonment or fines to drop them back off with their mother. She wants to take me back to court because I thought they would be safer if they stayed at home with her.
A: In general, no; your visitation rights don't REQUIRE you to exercise visitation.
A: Wow. Most problems about time sharing I see are just the opposite: the parent who has the children does not want the allow the other parent to come get the children during spring break. But my advice is the same: go back to court and tell your story to the judge and let the judge decide. Why? Because that is his job.
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