Changing a parenting plan: legal advice

Questioner

Hello, My ex and I have drawn up and signed a parenting plan ourselves. We were not married and we did not have a cohabitation contract, but we are both (court-recognized) parents of our daughter. The current contact arrangement is one week from Thursday evening to Friday evening and the other week from Thursday evening to Sunday evening. We agreed on this arrangement because I worked on Thursday evening. This is no longer the case. Now I want to adjust the contact arrangement, the week that she is with him from Thursday evening to Sunday evening I want to adjust to Friday morning to Sunday evening. My ex refuses to go along with this. The reason I want to change this is because our daughter always goes to bed way too late at her father's house and has no rest rhythm and regularity at his house and is therefore delivered exhausted on Sunday evening. So bad that she always has to recover completely the next day and is worthless. From next year she will also go to daycare on Thursday during the day and this means that he would pick her up there and she will be there until Sunday. This means that she doesn't get any rest and that's why I want to pick her up from school myself, make sure that she gets some rest after school and that she is picked up fresh and fruity on Friday and has a bit more of a buffer for the rest of the 'busy' weekend. The other week I can just leave it like that because then she comes home again on Friday evening and then has some rest here. Since he refuses to go along with this, what can I do now?

Lawyer

An important question in advance is whether you both have parental authority. If so, we may be talking about a custody dispute. This concerns the decision to provide the child with care in a certain way. The care arrangement can also be adjusted. This will have to be done through the court. Please note that you will have to prove that the child is actually tired as a result of the father's actions. This will not always be easy. You can contact me for this. Please email me directly. You can also choose your own lawyer. Good luck.

Questioner

Yes, we both have parental authority. And indeed, how do I show that she is worthless every Monday and is exhausted by the busy weekend and going to bed late... Any witnesses I have are my parents, but I fear they could be seen as 'biased'... Is it true that if the care arrangement were to be adjusted by the judge, the judge would also look at the arrangement we had last year or would the judge look purely at the current situation... In any case, thank you very much for your answer...

Lawyer

The judge will take all the circumstances into account. Depending on what you bring up. Judges are not keen to change entire arrangements if it should actually be organised through responsible parenting, through reasonable communication, that your child is in bed on time. But again, you can go to court.