I have clients who wonder why I want to be so specific on establishing visitation between the children and the non-custodial parent. The answer is simple; the more specific you are, the less ambiguity (usually) exists. Also, based on my own experience as a divorce parent, I think specificity helps when it comes to planning future visitation.
For example, I believe establishing visitation on the first, third, and (when applicable) fifth weekends of the month to be preferable than saying visitation is to take place every other weekend. That way, you can look at a calendar and instantly tell when visitation is to take place as opposed to having count out weekends. Also, I think you need to define how to determine to which month a weekend belongs when a new month starts during the weekend.
A recent decision by the Mississippi Court of Appeals lends some support to my way of doing things. That court recently reviewed the Madison County case of Benal v. Benal. In that case, the judge failed to order specific visitation because that issue had not been submitted to the court for consideration.
Citing an earlier case, the Court of Appeals found that a specific visitation schedule must be addressed by the trial court if the issue of custody is submitted for resolution (the court may adopt the visitation schedule agreed upon by the parties). The Court of Appeals did not address how specific the schedule must be, and that will probably be the eventual subject of another case.
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