Legal Question in Family Law in Rhode Island

This is a common problem with no specific answer. Your ex-husband is entitled to have the visitation he was awarded by the court in your divorce proceeding. However, the law does not give you the right to force your ex-husband to utilize the visitation exactly as it was awarded.

However, if your job is crucial to income that takes care of the children then certainly you can't afford to lose your job. If your children are young enough to go to an early morning childcare program, then if your ex-husband is consistently putting your job at risk you may file a Motion to Reduce Visitation based upon your ex-husband's unreliability. However, it is best to make sure he is substantially unreliable very consistently and that it does, in fact, put your job at risk.

Your ex-husband may suddenly become more reliable if he realizes that his tardiness could cost him a significant amount of money for childcare so you can get to work on time and he could lose time with his children. I'm not an advocate for depriving fathers of time with their children if they do want to participate in their children's lives, but if he can be on time to pick up his children, he should.