I have a brother living in the Valley whom has recently divorced and has the typical every other weekend visitation rights. However, he seemly has the kids several times during the week as well as many weekends for the month. Recently, my brother had to fire one of his asistant managers and that forced him to have to make up the lost hours. The weekend was coming up and his ex-wife wanted to know when he was going to pick up the kids which at that time he let her know that he would not be able to have the kids for the weekend and explained why. Well, she went ballistic on him and called him some choice words and said that she would coming to drop the kids of at work where he was. My brother feared that if upper management found out about this that he would lose his job. Not a good feeling. She was convinced that he had to take the kids and she was determined to make him take the kids.:mad:

Is this the way it works? And can she do this? We're talking about TEXAS... could it be different? What are his options and what can he do to keep this from happening again?:confused:

He is a father.

He has just as much responsibility to look after his own kids.

If he has to work, he can hire a baby sitter to watch the kids, but why should the mother always have to take care of the kids?

He is their father, that means something.

If he has to work, so be it. Get a babysitter or another friend or family member to watch the kids.

Thank you Captain Forest for your reply however, that was not the answer I was looking for with respect to the legal aspect. I also believe that you have missed high point of my question. It's not a question of his wanting to take the kids but that he has the kids 80% of the time indicating that she has no interest nor wants the responsibility of the kids but will not let them go to the father who wants them and cares what happens to the kids. In fact the kids would rather be with father than mother. With that in mind, we are talking about one weekend, for the first time ever, that he was unable to take the kids. Is that too much to ask for and is it necessary to be so defiant and rebellious? My brother doesn't need to reminded of his responsibility and to what effect would it be to hire a sitter if he will only be able to spend at max 2 hrs with them. Wouldn't it be better for the kids to be with mother instead?

If he spends 80% of the time with them, then why not go back to court to change the court order?


He should document all the time he is with the kids, go to the judge for full custody. Then have the mother be the one paying child support...

Kids are used as weapons to hurt the other side, during the divoce and for years latter, this is not a legal issue since the right of the mother to do this is not ruled on in court.

Visitation is a right not a obligation, she can not force him to come get the kids, she can of course drop them off and drive off, legal, most likely not, but also doubt if any judge would do anything about it, besides tell them to work it out.

If the mother expects him to take them on all of his visitation times, he needs to arrange a baby sitter to watch them when and if he can not be there.

And this is again not really even a legal issue just the mother proving a point to her ex using the kids to prove she can still push his buttons and make him do what she wants.

If your brother has his kids more time than the arrangement by court and he can get witnesses to the fact that she is forcing their children on him at very un appropriate times then he can go back in to court and get the arrangement changed to him having them full time but he would need daycare lined up and his witnesses ready for court or at least a notarized letter to what his witnesses have witnessed he needs to talk to a lawyer . In Ft.Worth the best down and dirty lawyer is Kim Hamilton I know this because I also had a very similar situation and I was 19 and her father was 33 he had cars a house paid for and family living there and he had the J.O.B. And that was the name of his lawyer. And tell him much luck he don't need to loose a good job that helps support his kids !