As a divorced father without physical custody, you
need all of your support payments to be on time. If they are not, your
wages will be garnished. On the flip side, no enforcement mechanism
exists for your visitation. The police will not enforce your order.
It will cost you thousands of dollars to litigate missed visitation. Agreements
you make for allowing one of two field trips during your visitation time are
unenforceable. The child can go on both field trips and the school will
do nothing. The courts will do nothing.
The current legal framework views fathers only as a source of
funds, with no reciprocal rights to visitation. This forces fathers into
a position of extreme inflexibility on visitation, because no compensatory
visitation is offered or if it is, it's not enforceable. Years later,
your children will resent the inflexibility, but won't remember their mother's
part in it. This situation cries out for reform. It hasn't changed
in 30 years.