I am wanting to move 5 hours away from here but my 4 year old child visits with her dad every other weekend which is court ordered. I want her to still visit with her dad but I am afraid he is going to be nasty and make me stay here. I don't want to put my life on hold so what can I do?

Is the 5 hour move still in state?

If so he can't make you stay... what will most likely happen is your visitation will be changed to you both meeting halfway for pickup and dropoff.

If it is out of state you will need his consent before moving.

I'm not so sure about the in state vs out of state issue. If the visitation is court ordered than ANYTHING that will prevent the father from exercizing his vistation rights needs to be approved by the court.

You may have to provide transportatino for the child so he does not miss any visits. After that if that does not work, you may have to provide further visits during holdiays, summer and the such to make up for other missed visits.

Point, if it was my kids I would block your moving in court, since it would stop my visits.

Is the 5 hour move still in state?

If so he can't make you stay...what will most likely happen is your visitation will be changed to you both meeting halfway for pickup and dropoff.

If it is out of state you will need his consent before moving.


I am not aware of this ability to move within a State - as far as I am aware any move which will cause undue visitation hardship will not be approved. A five hour round trip drive, even with you splitting the distance, appears on its face to be a hardship.

At any rate - go back to Court and see what the Judge says. I wouldn't make any move without that Court appearance.

I am not aware of this ability to move within a State - as far as I am aware any move which will cause undue visitation hardship will not be approved. A five hour round trip drive, even with you splitting the distance, appears on its face to be a hardship.

Well maybe it varies state to state, or case to case, I just know when I called down to the courthouse to see if it would be a problem if I moved within the state, they said no. They just said the farther I move, the father could take me back to court to rearrange drop off and pick up.
(Which really wouldn't matter in our case because it was already court ordered for us to meet halfway for drop off and pick up, so the farther I moved, the farther I too would have to drive for visitation.)

Well maybe it varies state to state, or case to case, I just know when I called down to the courthouse to see if it would be a problem if I moved within the state, they said no. They just said the farther I move, the father could take me back to court to rearrange drop off and pick up.
(Which really would matter in our case because it was already court ordered for us to meet halfway for drop off and pick up, so the farther I moved, the farther I too would have to drive for visitation.)


Once again what goes on in the Courts surprises me - in my area no advice is given by phone because the people actually picking up the calls are not Attorneys and are not allowed to give legal advice. They tell you to come in and speak to an Attorney or Judge. Of course, you can probably move anywhere you want as long as the mother and father are in agreement - it's when somebody decides not to cooperate that there's an issue.

Never heard the "as long as it's within the State it's okay" thinking before. I've seen remarried mothers refused permission to relocate with the new husband because it would change visitation by making the child less accessible.