My ex-husband was ordered "no parenting time" with my son. There is nothing written in the decree of divorce about phone calls. How does this work ?Is he legally allowed to call him right now ?Can he call whenever he wants ? Am I allowed to set up the calling schedule ? Thank you!

My ex-husband was ordered "no parenting time" with my son. There is nothing written in the decree of divorce about phone calls. How does this work ?Is he legally allowed to call him right now ?Can he call whenever he wants ? Am I allowed to set up the calling schedule ? Thank you!!
Your home, your phone; just turn it off when you don't want to answer. I would keep a record of all attempted calls, however, in the event his behavior gets abusive. Try a 'common sense' approach before getting a court involved, unless it involves your personal safety.

My ex-husband was ordered "no parenting time" with my son. There is nothing written in the decree of divorce about phone calls. How does this work ?Is he legally allowed to call him right now ?Can he call whenever he wants ? Am I allowed to set up the calling schedule ? Thank you!!


This should have been covered by the Court order - although it apparently wasn't.

You control the child at this point; you control the phone calls. You get to set the schedule depending on the age of the child, what is appropriate, if your "ex" upsets the child.

Or either one of you could go back to Court and ask that a phone arrangement be ordered.

No parenting time means NONE period. You can refuse phone calls, you an intercept letters and of course he can't visit.

The question is WHY was such written into the decree?

It's a long story. He had a history of drug use, abuse, and mental instability. We both agreed to supervised visitation when the divorce papers were first drawn up. Before the final hearing the judge required us both to go to a seminar for divorcing parents with children. It's required in my county, it's one long day, but actually was really good. The judge also orderded him to attend counseling and to start to paying child support. My ex husband was served the papers, never signed, never showed back up in court, never attended the seminar, counseling and has only made a handfull of child support payments. So that's why he was ordered "no parenting time". This was 3 years ago, and he has made little to no contact since then. I am not against him calling or supervised visits(I do understand no matter what he is my son has a right to know him), but he re-appears and makes demands and threats and I just want to know where I stand. Just curoius, but why do you ask ? Is that very unusual ? Thanks much, this site has been a help.

Actually, it is kind of unusual for a judge to order no parenting time. But the main reason why I ask, is the more we know about your situation the better advice we can give.

If he shows up making threats and demands, I would tell him that he's in no position to demand anything and threats will get him no where. If he wants any chance of being a part of his son's life he needs to clean up his act completely.