Summer Weeks

[Miller]

I had posted previously about BM wanting to change how the summer weeks are handled.  My DH gets 6 consecutive weeks with SD each summer and has to let BM know the dates by April 1 each year.  During that time, he gets one uninterrupted week for vacation purposes.  During the remainder of the summer, BM gets one uninterrupted week for vacation purposes.  She is saying that since SD plays softball during the beginning of the summer (and DH has always taken his summer weeks during the latter part of the summer) that she should get to choose her vacation week whenever she wants even if it would interfere with DH's 6 weeks.  She says that then he would have to add a week to the beginning or end of his summer weeks to make-up for her vacation week being right in the middle of his "consecutive" weeks.  She has also expressed a problem with the fact that DH chooses his 6 weeks so that they overlap with the month that I am off work each summer.  Our thought has always been that it makes the most sense to have SD during the summer at a time when we know one of us can be home with her.  Just doesn't make sense to have her sit at our house by herself.

We receive a Motion to Modify in the mail last week but it hasn't been filed with the court.  It wasn't even dated.  We have scheduled an appointment with our attorney for later this week to discuss what's going on.

Since SD is now a teenager, DH asked her if it was important to her to be at our house when I am home in the summer.  SD has said that it is and she doesn't want to have to come at another time.  She even wrote a letter for us to give to our attorney so that her (SD's) feelings are known.

1.  Do you think it will help us to have this letter from SD?

We have put together an overview of the past summers to show that there have been weeks that BM could have chosen for her vacation week that would not have interfered with the softball season, but she chose to pick a week that did.

2.  Will it help for us to show what has happened in the past and that she did not choose a week when there was not games when she could have?

[socrateaser]

>1.  Do you think it will help us to have this letter from SD?

Technically, the letter is hearsay and inadmissible unless you ask the child to testify, which is frequently a bad move, because it makes you seem hostile by dragging the child into the controversy.

But, you can testify to the fact that you received the letter, and to what it says, and the judge may want to read it, and then, based upon the contents of the letter, ask the child to testify.
>
>2.  Will it help for us to show what has happened in the past
>and that she did not choose a week when there was not games
>when she could have?

It may if you can prove your log is accurate. I don't know what supporting evidence you have, i.e., receipts, photos, etc.