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Co-Parenting in New Hamsphire

NHStep's picture
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Is anyone else here from New Hsmpshire, or familiar with family law here? My SO has been divorced for less than a year (maybe even less than six months; the divorce proceedings stretched out over a two year time period) and in NH the court likes for a) both parents to spend ample time with the child when possible and b) the parents to "co-parent". However, so far, BM has made this next to impossible. We have SO's son four nights per week as he resides with us "for school purposes". BM continuously rejects SO when he looks for her approval prior to enrolling the son in any extracurricular activities. And, when he throws caution to the wind and enrolls him anyway, he knows that she won't bring him to the activity and that he'll only be able to participate when he's in our custody. This past spring, SO enrolled him in t-ball and the boy was only able to attend half of his games due to this. The most recent problem is that she doesn't like their current schedule and won't accept a compromise offered by SO; instead of trying to reach an agreement, she has petitioned the court. Every time SO tries to talk to her about anything at all, she points fingers and is nasty instead of dealing with the issue at hand. The boy is having some coping issues which cause problems both in the home, and at school as he is not up to par with his peers emotionally speaking. SO tried to enroll him in therapy, after trying several times to talk to BM about it, and she is blocking him from receiving any assistance. My point is that it is clear that these two aren't able to "co-parent", even though that is what the court would like to see and is, in most cases, in the best interest of the child. In the state of New Hampshire, how can SO get out of this obligation? All BM does is deflect any thought, idea, or concern that SO has; right down telling their very confused son that he doesn't have to listen to me because I'm not his mother. *sigh* Any thoughts or ideas you could share would be greatly appreciated.

Calypso1977's picture

you may need a parenting coordinator to help... otherwise, you really cant force her to do stuff with him on her time...just as she cannot force you to do stuff with him on your time.

it sucks...but she's clearly high conflict and the child suffers as a result.

NHStep's picture

RilkaGR, thank you for your input. A GAL was appointed during SO's custody dispute and he ultimately placed the boy with us for school purposes due to the BM's violent history, failed suicide attempts and choice to move out of the boy's current school district "just because". Now that she's contesting what she just agreed to (the schedule they signed off on), SO has filed a motion to reappoint the GAL, to which BM replies "I'm going to go to court and tell them what an idiot he is". Good luck. I have been talking to SO about the concept of parallel parenting. This concept is all new to me. I have raised my BD (16) together with my ex with minimal issues: in fact, we were able to come to an agreement on both custody and child support outside of court.

I only mention the extracurricular activity piece as an example. As he gets older and wants to participate in sports at his school (here where we live), he should be allowed to do so. No one is trying to force anyone, but honestly it seems like the right thing to do if that's what your child wants to be involved in (within reason). No one is planning on overloading the kid with activities just to spite the other parent, we just want him to be able to join a team if he wants to and to learn about the commitment involved with that.

I assure you that no one is being strong-armed but us. BM signed off on this plan four months ago and because SO won't agree to giving the boy to her every weekend Fri-Sun she has filed a petition to change the court order ALREADY.

Calypso1977's picture

he should be ok for high school - i believe in NH the age is 14 for considering the child's opinion on where to live. your SO also has on his side the fact that the child is a boy - placing boys with dads at a certain age is often much more beneficial to teh child.

lastly, as they get older its harder to enforce visitation especially if they are given a car of their own, etc. if the mom is truly a high conflict nut the boy will probably end up with you the majority of the time anyway (while BM collects her CS!).