Life happens. Just because you are getting separated doesn't mean you have to live within 50 miles radius of your ex for the rest of your life. Do you people think about what happens in real life? What if the custodian parent gets married to someone who has a better job out of state? What if they have no support in the state where they got married? They just have to suck it up and live within 50miles? Com'on now. Yes ideally, parents who are separated should live close enough, but also yeh ideally parents should live in the same household and not get divorced, shit happens, and ideal is not real life. Best thing to do is to be as amicable as possible to make any situation works for your kids and not hold another parent hostage at 50 miles

Anonymous wrote:I have two family members who are starting the separation process. One of them wants to move two hours away!! How can they share custody of their young kids if they are so far apart? It just seems like one will be stuck with only weekends. I think that the weekend-only person may go along with that to keep things amicable but what are the potential pitfalls here, other than less time with the kids? I fear they will agree to this and then regret it.

I would suggest they meet with a mediator who is experienced in parenting agreements. This might save a lot of heartache, headaches and hits to the wallet later on. Someone who does this for a living will be able to help parents work through scenarios that they might not even be able to imagine. The arrangements when your kids are not in school may look very different once they are in school.

Most custody agreements include a clause regarding mileage, like the parent with primary custody agrees to reside in a 50 mile radius of a certain town, etc.

I have a friend who moved to SF for work. Family lives in Philadelphia. He travels to see them every other week.

DH's ex moved to San Francisco and there was nothing he could do about it. Sees kids for Christmas, spring break and 2 weeks in summer.

Well there are many people in the DC area that do 1.5-2 hr commutes each day. Ideal no but doable

First of all, this happens a lot. It's life. My dad lived 2 hrs away and then later moved a bit further away. My mom drove us halfway most of the time. Not a big deal. It's only one if they make it one.

The person who moves away will need to alway pick up and drop-off kids at the home or very close by. The parent who has primary physical custody should not be forced to drive 2 hours or even 1 hour to pick up kids. The point of pick up and return is the kid's home.

The pitfall is that the kid is stuck driving 2 hours twice in a weekend because one parent moved away. The pitfall is that if the kid has any weekend activities like soccer, the kid will be 2 hours away. The pitfall is that the kid has to go through this.

Easy. One person becomes primary physical custodian and the other sees kids every other weekend and extended summer periods. Alternate holidays.

myob

I have two family members who are starting the separation process. One of them wants to move two hours away!! How can they share custody of their young kids if they are so far apart? It just seems like one will be stuck with only weekends. I think that the weekend-only person may go along with that to keep things amicable but what are the potential pitfalls here, other than less time with the kids? I fear they will agree to this and then regret it.