When creating a child custody agreement and visitation schedule, it is quite common for parents to put in requests for certain holidays. For example, maybe the kids will be with dad for Christmas, but then with mom for Easter. Or maybe spending at least half of Chanukah with the children is a must for a father. But what happens if one parent is not particularly a religious person and therefore doesn’t necessarily feel as much of an attachment to specific holidays? Can this be balanced with the other parent’s religious holiday requests?
This was exactly at the heart of why one father made a specific child custody request in his divorce settlement. While his ex-wife requested Christmas, four Jewish holidays and half of the kids’ holiday winter break, the father specifically asked for his 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son to be with him if his favorite sports team is playing in the NCAA men’s basketball title game.
The father said he grew up with his family going to sporting games and wants to be able to do the same with his children, which is why he made the request.
“I’m not a very religious person, so I tried to think of culturally some other things that are important to me that I wanted to make sure I share with my kids,” he said about requesting the sporting event day.
Aside from the title game request, he also requested St. Patrick’s Day and Super Bowl Sunday. In the end, negotiations worked out for both parents to have their requested schedules with their children.
Source: Yahoo! Sports, “Syracuse fan makes unusual custody request in divorce settlement,” Jeff Eisenberg, July 27, 2012
