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Special Visitation with an Infant

© Annelies Mouring

Sometimes these articles are aimed at older kids when custody is discussed, but not every custody case involves a child of reasoning, thinking age. Some custody battles begin with children that are infants, under 2 years. These kids require special handling that might not be addressed by the court or legal professional but might be the cause of worry. Check with a legal professional if the situation applies to you, to make sure that all things are considered if you have concerns. The following items might be concerns that might need to be addressed (See previous article Visitation with an infant) During the holidays this might be difficult for the non0custodial parent that might not get to experience some infant firsts such as 1st Christmas, crawling and walking.

Time away from custodial parent shorter, Make every minute count: With an infant it might be impossible for the child to visit long periods of time when a child is an infant. Infants have short attention spans, require more sleep and almost special skills to cope with the needs of the infants. Scheduling a few hours and rarely overnight visits might be hard on a parent. See if the non-custodial parent can share these special times with the infant. If that is not feasible, recreate a special holiday with the infant. Remember to not overdo it because an infant may not understand or care. During the early years, the festivities are more important to the parents that the child

Non-custodial parents - Videotape: If you can't be there - Videotape the festivities. Make pictures of you and the way that you celebrate the Holidays. Show your way of opening gifts and celebrating the festivities. Be creative and make the child feel like a participant.

Pick a day and split the difference Some people celebrate on Christmas eve and some on Christmas day. For those that celebrate Hanukah, days can be alternated so that the visits can be kept short. Since an infant is not going to give "Christmas day" excitement, then the day could be split either by day or by hour, Make it fair and follow the divorce order unless an agreement can be made to the contrary.

Remember the reason for the season. Above all remember the holiday and that this is the time of the year to put aside differences and celebrate.

Happy holidays.

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