Summertime can bring hot weather to St. Louis and with that hot weather can come heated arguments among divorced parents over their custody obligations. A parent may be late to pick up a child and the other parent may decide to retaliate by refusing to exchange the child later.
This can quickly escalate into a battle of wills between the parents, with neither side wanting to compromise. If you run into this type of difficulty, where the other parent becomes uncooperative, you may become angry and frustrated. But whatever your emotions, don’t try to get even. But make certain you document exactly what happened.
Because so many disputes can quickly become charged with emotions, a court often has difficulty determining who is at fault. If you have problems with your child’s other parent, the best way to deal with the issue is carefully document every incident.
Save any texts or emails. If they call, make a note of the exact contents of the call as soon as possible after the call. Such a record will have much more credibility at a court hearing than vague recollections that have been compromised by the passage of time and the flow of emotions.
Careful recordkeeping will also help improve your credibility. You will appear to the court as organized and willing to follow the orders of the court and this can also demonstrate your willingness to cooperate with the other parent in carrying out that order.
As frustrating as these situations can be at the time they occur, detailed records can help make the court more sympathetic to your arguments, as your detailed records provide a judge with evidence they can use to support a decision in your favor.
