What is visitation in North Carolina?

The non-custodial, secondary parent’s time with the child is commonly referred to as visitation. Visitation is viewed in North Carolina as a lesser version of custody. Hence, the same principles apply to custody as to visitation in regard to the best interests of the child, parental rights, the child’s wishes, and the discretion of the trial judge. In most residential arrangements for children of divorce, one parent has more custodial time with the children and the other parent has less custodial time, also known as “visitation”. Visitation refers, in other words, to the custodial time assigned to the parent with whom a child does not primarily reside. In litigated custody cases in North Carolina, the secondary parent is most frequently awarded alternate weekends, sometimes one overnight during the week or another evening for supper, half of all major holidays, and special days such as Mother’s or Father’s Day and birthdays. Over the past few decades, there has been a judicial trend toward increasing the number and length of visitation periods for the secondary parent, although different judges in North Carolina have different philosophies regarding this issue. A few judges believe, for instance, that very young children should remain in one setting most of the time. These judges would, accordingly, award less visitation to the non-custodial parent, at least until the child is older.