Mixed,
I understand what you are saying. However, when you get every other weekend, shared holidays, two weeks per summer and not one extra minute than the
court order states, AND the ex makes attempts to interfere with the court ordered time, things start to feel a little different.
Also, I had to file for emergency hearing in the beginning of all of this 6 years ago becuase my ex hid child from me for several months. So, my time is court ordered, hers isn't. She has custody and IMHO doesn't need "designated" time to spend with our child other than holidays, she has our child a majority of the time already and if the child isn't scheduled to be with me, then naturally would be with her anyway.
My two weeks can be continious or not. So, I elect to begin one week the Sunday evening at the conclusion of my regular weekend and return child the following Sunday. This gives me 9 full days with child two times in the summer. It is the ONLY time I get to spend continious time with the child at all. What ex tried to do was to include my regularly scheduled weekends in the two weeks, giving me 7 days each week. The two weeks is meant to be IN addition to the already scheduled weekends. That is how it is written in the order and that is how the court saw it too.
About filing in advance. As I said, if he has a letter from the other parent informing him that he won't be able to have child as planned, then I don't see why they couldn't file in advance since they have proof that the other parent intends to violate the order. It worked for me, but I am sure there are a lot of situations where it may not work. However, if they don't have solid proof, then the best option may be to file for clarifcation of the order and hope they get a hearing before the vacation. It sounds to me like their order is too vague and needs to be spelled out more clearly. Specific details about these types of things always makes it so much easier to know who is supposed to do what.