Dad With Odd Work Schedule Should Not Have Fixed Visitation Shedule

Tennessee child custody case summary.

The child in this Sumner County, Tennessee, case was born in 2009. Under the parenting plan, the mother was granted 245 days of residential parenting time, with the father receiving 120 days. The father was an airline pilot with an unfixed work schedule, and was given a minimum of ten days per month.

In 2014, the father filed a petition to modify the plan. He alleged that the mother had refused him additional days of visitation, refused to let his parents pick up the child, and that the Thanksgiving holiday was wrongly balanced in the mother’s favor. The mother filed a counter-petition claiming that the father was in willful contempt for failing to disclose his work schedule and failing to coordinate the Halloween holiday.

The trial judge ordered the father to give his schedule for the following month to the mother within 24 hours of receiving it. The mother then had 36 hours to inform the father which 10 days he had that month. The mother objected to this provision, and instead wanted fixed days each month set for the father’s visitation. After the trial court entered its final order, she appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court first noted that the trial court should have made more specific fact findings before making its final order. But since the transcripts and record were available, the appeals court was able to proceed with the case.

On appeal, the mother argued that the child needed consistency, and that for that reason, she wanted a specific schedule for each month, without reference to the father’s work schedule.

On its review of the record, the appeals court concluded that the father had to bid for job assignments, and that he could not guarantee his availability on specific days. While the appeals court agreed that consistency was a good thing, it noted that this was not an ironclad rule. It noted that the mother’s proposed plan would almost certainly limit the child’s visitation with the father. It agreed with the trial court that the child’s best interests would not be best served by forcing the father to choose between his job and being able to exercise visitation. It noted that the father’s professional success as a pilot had a major influence on the child’s best interests.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals held that the schedule adopted by the trial court was within the trial court’s discretion, and therefore affirmed.

No. M2016-00569-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Jan. 17, 2017).

See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Custody Laws in Tennessee.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.