Valued Visits Success

A father recently visited his 3-year-old daughter at Valued Visits after not seeing her for two and a half months. At initial contact, both the child and father were somewhat reserved; not knowing what to expect. But both were eager to see one another. At the beginning of the first visit the child cried a little when she left her mother’s arms, but upon seeing all of the toys at the visitation center and the joy in her father’s eyes, the child opened right up. The father and daughter played games, ran after each other, ate meals together and giggled often. Throughout the months, the bond between the father and daughter grew. This little girl was no longer seeing Mommy and Daddy fighting. She was only focusing on playing and sharing laughs with Daddy.

During the third month of visitations, records of visitations were sent to the Court for review. Both parents attended a hearing, and based on Valued Visits observation notes, the judge ordered unsupervised visitations between the father and daughter.

With this family, the initial months of separation between parents were fueled with anger, resentment and unhappiness (as evidenced in comments to Valued Visits staff.) During the time of supervised visitations, these emotions dwindled and both spoke about their daughter’s well being rather than their failed married.

During visitations, the father was able to focus solely on playing. The mother saw the joy in the little girl’s eyes after visitation, and often commented on how happy that made her feel. Not only did supervised visitations provide a nurturing setting for visitation, but it also allowed time for each parent to overcome their anger toward each other. This is a scenario frequently seen in our program.