Can one parent control the other parent’s custody time?

This is really a question about co-parenting—how two parents work together to raise their child.

You will always find people, including some lawyers, who say things like:
“He was 10 minutes late; don’t let him have the child today.”

That usually does not help your child, and it can backfire in court. If someone is chronically late, you have the right to go to court and ask to modify your agreement. But simply blocking parenting time over minor issues shows the court that you may not be able to co-parent.

Remember:

• A custody agreement or stipulation of settlement is a contract and a guideline, but it’s not a script for every real-life situation.
• If pickup is at 4:30 and the other parent calls and says, “There’s traffic, I’ll be there at 5:00,” the answer is not always to call your lawyer. Your lawyer will bill you and usually can’t fix a 30-minute delay.

On the other hand, agreements should address serious problems, such as:

• A parent showing up intoxicated,
• Being hours late on a regular basis,
• Bringing people around the child that the agreement forbids.

Those are custody issues that can end up back in court. But overall, courts expect parents to co-operate and not weaponize time with the child over every disagreement. Also, you are not the arbiter of how the other parent spends their time with the child, as long as what they’re doing is not dangerous. You may not like their choices, but that doesn’t always give you the right to stop their parenting time.