Vacation schedule

[johnw]

Dear Soc.
              I live in NJ. In our divorce agreement both my ex and I get 2 uninterupted weeks of vacation each year with our 2 children. I have just received a letter from my ex telling me when she is taking her 2 weeks. What she has done is take 1 uninterupted week, the she has taken the 2nd weeks split in 2. By doing this, what she has done is request her vacation days to be my normally scheduled days with the kids. To clarify, I have the kids every Tues Night to Thurs morning and every other weekend. So one week she wants the kids on Tues and Wed, and the remainder of the week she has requested to have them on a scheduled weekend of mine. The result of attempting to split her 2nd week into 2 actually gives her 3 uninterupted weeks this year. She is trying to interpret vacation much like someone would do at work and take vacation days here and there.

1. Can she split her weeks vacation this way to, in essence, get another weeks vacation?
2. If not, what can I do?
3. The weekend she has requested is my regularly scheduled weekend, which includes Memorial day.  In our agreement memorial day is my holiday with the kids this year. If I agree to let her have that weekend, do I have the right to request that Memorial day Monday another day?
Thanks

[socrateaser]

>1. Can she split her weeks vacation this way to, in essence,
>get another weeks vacation?

Your court orders re custody control, so you'll need to post the EXACT text of the orders if you want me to give you a reasonable interpretation.

[DecentDad]

Soc will give you a legal answer, but I'll let you know what worked for me.

If the words "two weeks of uninterrupted vacation" is in your language, then your ex may be unreasonable here.

My ex chopped up her "a span of 2 weeks uninterrupted vacation" into 336 hours for 22 separate "vacations", designed to give herself approx 2 months total (i.e., she only wanted "vacations" during my custodial time, but not during her own custodial time).

I wrote her a letter, agreeing to her first vacation period, as she was entitled to it, and I didn't object if she wanted it for less than 2 weeks.

I advised her that after her first vacation, if she thereafter attempted to disrupt the custodial schedule, I'd file contempt against her, as she's only allowed one period of "uninterrupted" vacation.

I concluded by inviting her to change her "vacation" so that she could have the entire amount to which she's entitled.

She finally complied... probably rather than risking losing any part of it.

But if your language only says, "Each parent shall have two weeks total of vacation", then it's up to each of you to interpret that.

DD

[johnw]

Soc,
      our agreement says we are each allowed 2 uninterupted weeks of vacation each year.