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We have that same line in our CO and honestly, the child still comes smelling like smoke and we haven't been able to do anything about it.  There's not really an easy way to prove that the mother is letting someone smoke around the child. 

My husband has 50/50 as well.  Whenever mom decides to not bring the child back, he files a police report.  We have been told by our lawyer that you'll have a better chance of getting a contempt conviction if it has happened on more than one occasion (3 times is the general rule).  So I would document it with a police report this time but not necessarily file contempt against her after just this one time.

Basically, with contempt, you are asking the judge to resolve it when the CO isn't followed.  If mom denies visitation but then gives you the child back, then generally, the situation has already been resolved because you got the child back.  So when you're trying to file contempt against someone for denying visitations, you want to be able to prove that it is a habit and not just a one-time thing.  A judge isn't going to want to spend the time hearing a contempt case just so they can give you one make-up day, but they will if it's like a week's worth of time. 

We filed contempt after 4 denied visitations, but ending up dismissing it because a GAL was hired (it would have been pointless to then go to court because, ideally, the GAL would be able to resolve any upcoming visitation issues).  Even though we didn't get an actual contempt conviction, we can still use those denied visitations to file for primary custody, which we have done now that there have been 4 MORE denied visitations (among other things - I'm not saying you should file for custody based on denied visitations alone).

First off - Giggles, your post made me cry.

Second of all - Stressed out, thank you for making this post.

I actually came here today to make pretty much the exact same post that you did.  I have always wanted nothing more than for my dd to have a relationship with her father.  He completely resisted so I finally gave up and he has not seen her since she was 6 months (she is now 3 as well).

Now he is saying he wants to see her after the holidays are over, and I can only hope it will go as well as your visits have been going.  I think it's great that you already have a parenting plan set up which seems to be in the complete best interest of your daughter.

I look forward to reading more updates from you.

And offering to pay her support while you care for the child is NOT in the best interest of the child.  The purpose of child support is for the child, if you are just giving the mother money when she does not have the child then you are actually taking money AWAY from the child.

Well if the mother isn't taking the child, isn't she therefore neglecting him?

Get a new lawyer ASAP and have them file for custody and in that have him/her request that you immediately be granted temporary physical custody so that you can go and pick up your child.

I think she means to say that he is NOT up-to-date, therefore she does not have to pay him to come see the child, therefore he is not coming to see the child.

I guess she wants him to come see the child so she wants it taken out of the court order that she has to pay him to come see the child?

But if she wants him to come see the child, then why doesn't she go ahead and offer to pay him anyway even though he is not up-to-date on CS?

That's just how Georgia does it - temporary hearings are really short and basically are just to set the visitation up.  The rest of your complaints will be heard at the actual, final custody hearing.  Keep documenting the denial of visitations (we file a police report every time my husband's ex doesn't show up). 

I would assume you'd just have to pay the lawyer by the hour - usually between $200-300 around here.

You may be able to find a paralegal that would write it up for you for less.

Reshawn - how did you get CPS to return your phone calls? DH has called a couple times but they won't call him back.

Well, we were unable to get an emergency hearing since we already have a January court date and since we already previously had an emergency hearing in August (when the mother was keeping the child from us).  The judge said that if CPS feels the need to put a safety plan in place then they will, otherwise we have to just wait until our hearing to get it worked out.

The problem is that we have heard NOTHING from CPS.  As far as we know, they have not interviewed the child.  The therapist has called them multiple times and they tell her they are taking it seriously but we have seen no action from them.  It's really frustrating.  We had this same issue the last time DSD said something to us - CPS would not take it seriously because of the false allegations that her mother has made against us. 

This is so frustrating.  And now we just received a bunch of paperwork from the mother's lawyer claiming that DSD made the allegation against my dd BEFORE ever making an allegation against the mother's relative, and accusing us of coaching the child to say that she was hurt by her relative instead of my dd.  This is total BS, but we have documentation proving exactly when DSD made her allegations to us (police report and doctor's examination) and I know she doesn't have anything because her allegation didn't come up until 2 months later. 

I just can't believe she is going to try to drag her child through the mud in order to try to get custody, and now she is trying to drag my child through it as well.  What kind of mother does that?  A desperate one, I suppose....