Court Opinion

ID: 9727939
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:53:14.865876+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:44.403284
License: Public Domain

DAVIES, Judge
(concurring specially).
Although I concur with the majority in all respects, I add one observation on an issue not raised.
As is common in visitation cases,1 the order here provides that visitation will be on alternate weekends and holidays, and that the schedule of holiday visitation is to be alternated each year. I question whether this shows adequate consideration-of the best interests of the child (or much consideration at all).
For example, ought not the custodial home and neighborhood be the place of visitation on birthdays (for parties), on Halloween (for trick-or-treat groups), and on Christmas Eve and morning (for Santa’s visit)? (A second *6visit by Santa can be arranged by the noncustodial parent.)
Does one of the parents have an extended family that annually turns Thanksgiving into a family tradition full of priceless memories?
Which parent has a cabin at the lake, which is the annual Fourth of July gathering place for three or four generations?
And Labor and Memorial Day visitation at that lake cabin might give the children an opportunity (in opening and closing for the season) to have the experience of, and thus learn the joy of, work.
Which parent will take annual New Year’s Day ski trips — either strictly for adults, or with kids — which would make visitation that day either unhappy or particularly joyful?
Should the season openers (fishing and baseball) be treated as holidays to be spent with the appropriate parent? Let the adults who structure visitation spend a few minutes finding out.
And after the first year holiday visitation schedule has been worked out in the best interest of the children, should it not be used in subsequent years as well? If thought is given to where the children would get the most benefit, holiday by holiday, it is almost certain that alternating between years should not be adopted.
Finally, cannot something better be done about weekend rigidity? Holidays, special events, and tummy aches continually disrupt the schedule of alternate weekends. So might it work to have something like two out of four (or three) a month (and three out of five) for the noncustodial parent, with that parent having first choice, subject, perhaps, to one substitution per month by the other parent. (Maybe that would be complicated enough so the parents might start working visitation out themselves.)
What I mean to say is that visitation should be ordered, not with the idea of absolutely equal treatment for the parents, but rather to accommodate the best interests of the children — every weekend, every holiday, and every year. Parents can live with a degree of inequality, whichever way it falls, but the children of a divided family need every opportunity we can provide to build and enjoy family traditions.
Neither parent has raised the issue in this case, so my comments constitute only a suggestion for consideration by the parents, mediators, lawyers, judges, and court services agencies who together design visitation schedules for the children.

. “In most cases it is quite standard for the noncustodial parent to be granted visitation rights on alternating weekends and alternating holidays.” 14 Martin L. Swadin & Linda A. Olup, Minnesota Practice § 6.33 (1992).