When Your Kid Doesn’t Want To Go To Dad’s House

At What Age Can A Child Refuse Visitation in Mississippi?

There is no definitive age when a child can decide to stop visitation, but the courts do tend to look more kindly on older children or teenagers refusing visitation. However, without a change to a custody agreement, a child is legally obligated to follow the visitation schedule.

Why a Child May Not Want to Visit Their Father

There are a variety of reasons that could cause a child to refuse to go home to a custodial parent or visit their father.

Differences in rules are a common cause of children being unhappy with changing homes. Rules at one parent’s house may be stricter, or the expectations could be different between houses.

Their other parent living far away from their friends, school, activities, and other common places could be a cause for a child not wanting to visit their father. 

New partners or other people living in the home can cause a child to not want to visit, especially if the child doesn’t get along with these other individuals.

If there are other issues, especially concerns about the safety of your children, you should bring this to the attention of your attorney immediately. Depending on the severity of the concerns, the differences may warrant changes in custody or visitation arrangements. This is particularly true when the differences negatively affect a child’s well-being.

What to Do When a Child Refuses Visitation

We understand how difficult it can be to force a child to visit a parent, especially if your child is refusing visitation or throws temper tantrums when they don’t get what they want. While there is no foolproof way to manage your child’s feelings, there are a few helpful tips that may help.

Be Encouraging

Talking to your child and encouraging them to visit while allowing them to talk about why they don’t want to go can help your child feel more comfortable. It is also a good way for you to get a better idea of what’s going on at the other parent’s house that’s upsetting your child.

Involve Your Co-Parent

It’s important to keep the other parent in the loop if your child is refusing to see a parent. You should be sure to notify them of any issues with your child that may interfere with visitation time and talk about what’s going on to create a plan to help your child.

Smooth Transitions

Making an effort to make transitions between parenting time as smooth as possible. This could mean a variety of things depending on your child. One good option is to always pick up or drop off your child, so they know what to expect and when to expect it. You could also plan fun activities for after your child is doing with visitation. This might seem like bribery, but if it makes a difficult time easier for your child, it might be worth it.

Bring in Expert Help

Sometimes the situation requires more expertise and experience than you can provide, especially when refusing to visit comes with other behavioral issues, depression, or acting out. Scheduling some time for your child to speak with a mental health professional can be helpful for them to sort through their feelings and learn strategies to deal with their emotions better. Mental health professionals can also help provide tools for you as a parent to make transitions easier.

Legal Concerns for Refusing Visitation

As the custodial parent, you’re the one responsible for making sure that your child sees the other parent, and courts highly value parents who are working together. If you’re keeping your child from visitation, even if it’s what they want, you could eventually have to deal with legal ramifications. 

While it’s understandable that you don’t want it to feel like your child is being forced to visit a parent, encouraging them toward visitation may be a good idea. If visitation time is compromised, the parent missing visitation could file an order to show cause. This would require you to show cause for not complying with visitation.

If you’re concerned that your child might be in immediate danger of serious harm, you can refuse visitation. For example, if they show up to pick up your child visibly drunk, you don’t have to let them drive away with your child.

Contact a Child Custody Attorney Today

Dealing with issues surrounding custody and visitation can be stressful and overwhelming. Working with an attorney is the best way to make sure that you are following all the correct steps to protect yourself and keep your child safe and happy. 

If you’re dealing with more complex issues, such as issues that may be impacting your child's well-being, we may be able to help you understand your options. There are times when children refusing to visit their dads is more than just not wanting to deal with the difficulties that warrant the attention of an experienced child custody attorney.

Contact Campbell Law today to learn more about how we may be able to help you manage your custody situation. We respond within 24 hours when contacted by phone or email.