If your holiday plans include flying with your child on vacation or to visit family, you may face some questions and challenges you didn’t when you and your co-parent traveled together with your child. That can be especially true if your child is biracial and looks more like their other parent – or if your child is adopted and of a different race.
In general, one adult traveling with a child will garner more attention from security personnel and airline employees than a couple would. Try not to take it personally or believe that it’s racist. These professionals are trained to be on the lookout for child traffickers, and this is something that can set off alarm bells.
A number of parents have publicly told stories about flight attendants questioning their children or even of being detained by law enforcement after getting off their flights. That can be frightening and disturbing – especially for the child.
Bring plenty of documentation
You can avoid or at least minimize delays and stress by being prepared with plenty of documentation of your familial relationship to your child to present if asked for it. This includes:
- Your child’s birth or adoption certificate
- Your custody order
- Documentation of your name change if you took your premarital name back
- Photos of you and your co-parent with your child
- A travel consent letter signed by your co-parent providing authorization for the trip, if required.
If your child is old enough they could be asked questions by security or airline employees so it’s also smart to prepare them so they don’t get frightened or inadvertently say something that arouses suspicion.
Make sure you and your co-parent have travel agreements in place
If you haven’t yet begun your divorce proceedings, if you and your co-parent are living separately and plan to travel separately with your child, it’s wise to put an agreement in place detailing how far you can take your child without getting the other’s permission and what kind of information you need to share about your plans and whereabouts when you do.
If this is the first holiday season since your separation, you and your co-parent are likely both committed to making sure it’s a pleasant one for your child. By working out your plans as early as possible, you can prevent any unnecessary drama. Having legal guidance will help.
