Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: When can she make her own Decsion

There is no such law. If the father has either court-ordered or agreement-generated visitation rights, he's entitled to them. However, as a practical matter, the older a child gets, the more input she has in setting the visitation schedule, since she probably is involved in her own activities. If you want to change visitation, you should file a petition for modification if the current visitation is court-ordered. But if you're trying to completely terminate the father's visitation, it's unlikely you'll succeed if the father objects, unless you have evidence of child abuse or mistreatment during visitations. If only the holidays are involved, encourage your daughter to speak to her father and try to work it out.

Re: When can she make her own Decsion

Visitation orders are in effect until the child reaches the age of 18 or until the court changes the order. You will not find anything on paper to prove that a minor child can make up her own mind about whether to visit a parent. Wise parents usually give some consideration to the child's extra-curricular and social activities and make efforts to accommdate them by agreeing to rearrange visitation schedules, but as long as the court's order is in effect they don't have to. If there is a compelling reason to modify the visitation order you can return to court with a petition to modify, but a judge will seldom grant the petition without a reason far beyond the assertion that the child doesn't want the visit. If thirteen year old children were allowed to make decisions about whether to visit a parent or not, it would be frighteningly easy for the custodial parent to influence the child to make such a decision, cutting the other parent out of the child's life. This is almost always harmful to the child in the long run, and children often end up strongly resenting the custodial parent who caused the alienation from the other parent. If there is some very special event during the holidays which the child would miss because of visitation, it would be worth the effort to try, in a non-hostile way, to try to reach an agreement with the father to make an adjustment. But if he refuses, you will be in contempt of court if you do not comply with the order.