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In Michigan divorce cases with children, the parenting-time schedule dictates which parents the children will be with during the days of the week and on the weekends.  Typically there is an ordinary school-year schedule, there is also typically a holiday schedule and sometimes there is a summer vacation schedule that can be different from the ordinary school-year parenting-time schedule.  This blog is written to address whether Halloween is considered a holiday as part of a Michigan holiday parenting time schedule.  If you have questions regarding custody, parenting-time or any issue of family law and you live in Michigan, please contact us to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or calling (248) 608-4123.

Is Halloween Considered A Holiday For Parenting-Time In Michigan?

Typically Halloween is not included as a standard holiday that in most Michigan holiday parenting-time schedules.  I think the main reason for this is because there is typically no time off school and most employers do not give employees a day off for the holiday or the day after the holiday, so there is no reason to change with whom the child will be overnight on Halloween.  

However this does not mean that you cannot have it included in your own parenting time schedule that you work out with the other parent either through direct negotiation, mediation or the court system.  You can include any and all holidays that the other parent agrees to include or that you can convince the court to include.  As part of the initial divorce and creation of the holiday parenting-time schedule most courts will agree to include Halloween and alternate it between the parents starting from after the child gest out of school until an hour or so after the local "trick-or-treat" suggested stop-time or "curfew".  This makes sense as Halloween is a fun holiday for most kids and parents alike and most children only get to celebrate this particular holiday while they are young.  It is somewhat different than most holidays in that it is only for a designated period of the day on which the holiday falls and not the whole day or an overnight as are most holidays that a holiday parenting-time schedule will address.

If you are already divorced and it is not included in your Judgment of Divorce as a holiday in the parenting-time schedule, then whomever would have parenting time on the date that Halloween falls will have the children for Halloween.  Of course if both parents agree to alternate the holiday despite it not being included in the schedule (which is the reasonable thing to do in most cases) then no-one is going to stop you from doing so including the court system or the friend of the court.  However, if the other parent does not agree, then you will not have parenting time on Halloween if it is not your ordinarily scheduled parenting-time.  You could file a motion with the court to amend the schedule, but this can be expensive and it really depends on the judge as to whether they will change the parenting-time.  Unfortunately, I suspect that most judges will not find that there is a strong enough reason to allow them to change an existing parenting-time order.

This blog was written to generally address how Halloween will be handled by the family law courts in the context of parenting time in Michigan.  If you have questions about any aspect of divorce or family law, please do not hesitate to contact us to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or calling (248) 608-4123.