Q: Can primary custodian keep child away from other parent when they are grounded?
A: Generally speaking, visitation and child punishment are entirely separate issues (though they may seem related). One public policy consideration is that, as a society, we don't want parents effectively penalized due to a child's bad behavior and we don't want child punishment "weaponized" to hurt the other parent by withholding visitation. A similar issue often arises when cell phones/communication devices are taken away from a minor child as a punishment, thereby interfering with the other parent's ability to get in touch with the child while the child is out of their care. The best approach is to typically to try and work those issues out among parents (additional/make-up visitation time is always encouraged by the courts, especially to avoid unnecessary litigation).
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