There are a number of reasons your young child may be hesitant about visiting the non-custodial parent during court scheduled visitation. If you're dealing with a reluctant child, the below three suggestions may be just what you need to better understand your child's best interests and to meet those interests with patience and love.

Encourage Contact Between Your Child and Ex-Partner

As the custodial parent, you have a huge impact on your child's thoughts and feelings. If your child perhaps feels as if they're betraying you by spending time with the non-custodial parent, your encouragement can help your child to feel more positive about the situation and enjoy their visitation.

Assuming that your child's other parent isn't abusive or otherwise harmful, encouraging contact outside of scheduled visitation times can help to facilitate a deeper connection. Contact can include non-scheduled visits, such as your ex coming over for family game night, calls, texts, and video calls. It's important that your child see that both of their parents love them very much and that spending time with one parent doesn't mean that they're betraying the other.

Enlist the Help of a Child Psychologist

Your child may not feel comfortable telling you why they don't want to visit with their other parent, or they may not even know themselves why they feel this way. If that's the case, a child psychologist can help you and your child to get to the root of the issue.

There are a number of reasons your child may not feel comfortable visiting the non-custodial parent. Some may seem silly, such as not liking what the other parent serves for dinner, but all reasons are valid reasons and should be addressed with patience and love. Separation and divorce can be difficult for children to process, so by enlisting the help of a child psychologist you may be able to help your child deal with their unresolved issues and maintain a loving relationship with the non-custodial parent.

Ask the Courts for a Visitation Change

Unfortunately, unsupervised visitation with a non-custodial parent isn't always in the best interest of the child. If this seems to be the case, consider asking the courts to modify the visitation order.

If you have reason to believe that your child is being abused or otherwise put into danger, you have every right to ask the courts to modify the visitation order. While visitation modification can take a while to happen, your state may allow you to file a temporary motion for an order change. This should only be used in emergencies, such as if your ex has become violent or otherwise dangerous to be around.

Separation and divorce can be difficult for your child to understand and this may cause some issues while you settle into a visitation schedule between you and the non-custodial parent. For further help with the issue of forcing visitation, consult with a child psychologist or family law attorney. Click for more info about family law. 

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