If a co-parent is denying you court-ordered visitation, it can be tempting to ask the court to jail them for contempt the first time it happens. We generally recommend a different first move.
Instead of immediately pursuing jail time, consider asking the court to modify your order to make future denial harder to get away with: shift pickups and drop-offs to the child’s school on school days, and to a supervised exchange facility on non-school days. Both create an automatic, hard-to-dispute record — a parent who wants to deny access now has to pull a child out of school early, or simply not show up somewhere that logs attendance, either of which builds clear evidence for a future hearing.
Why we recommend this approach first
- Judges rarely jail a parent on a first contempt finding anyway — so asking for it upfront often doesn’t accomplish much.
- Involving young children in the idea that a judge might jail their other parent adds pain that doesn’t serve them.
- It’s effective: most parents who take this approach stop experiencing denial altogether, because the next violation is easy to prove.
This isn’t about avoiding enforcement — it’s about building an approach that actually gets you time with your kids, not just a symbolic win.