02/12/2025
With the flu becoming more of a problem in our community, the question arises as to whether a parent can refuse their visitation with a child who is sick, leaving the other parent to solely take care of the child. There is no explicit legal requirement that a parent must exercise their visitation rights. The existence or enforcement of a duty of support owed by a noncustodial parent for the support of a minor child is not affected by a failure or refusal by the custodial parent to implement any rights as to custody or visitation granted by a court to the noncustodial parent. The context in which the refusal may affect custody and visitation is where the parent refuses is asking for more time with the child. In that instance, the court may consider a parent's refusal to have visitation with the child in determining if an increase is in the best interest of the child. The answer, as is always the case in law, is: It depends. Is this a regular occurrence, even when there are minor illnesses? Does the parent have a larger pattern of refusing visitation? Does one parent not participate in the health issues with a child, leaving the other parent to regularly addreess health issues? All of these things may affect your custody and visitation arrangement, so if you have questions about these type of issues, it is worth consulting with an attorney about issues like this.
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