When one Texas parent stops following a custody order, exactly what to do next depends on what “not following” actually means. Making a parent comply with the order that already exists, and asking a court to change that order going forward, are two different legal actions, built on different statutes, different deadlines, and different proof. Confusing the two costs parents real time.
Enforcement and Modification Solve Different Problems
A motion for enforcement, filed under Texas Family Code § 157.001, asks the court to make a parent comply with the conservatorship, possession, or access terms that are already in place. A modification, filed under Texas Family Code Chapter 156, asks the court to change those terms going forward, and generally requires showing that circumstances have materially and substantially changed since the order was signed, under § 156.101. A parent whose ex missed a single weekend of visitation usually needs enforcement, not modification. A parent facing a genuine pattern that makes the current schedule unworkable may eventually need both, but they are separate filings answering separate questions.
How Fast You Have to Act Depends on What You Are Enforcing
Texas sets different deadlines depending on what was violated. Under Texas Family Code § 157.004, a motion asking the court to hold a parent in contempt for violating possession or access terms must be filed within six months of the date the child turns 18 or the right of possession otherwise ends. That is a much shorter window than the two years Texas allows for a child support contempt motion under a separate section of the same chapter, and it is easy for a parent focused on the support side of a case to assume the same long timeline applies to a missed-visitation problem. It does not.
Make-Up Time Is a Real Remedy, With Real Limits
When a court finds that a parent was denied court-ordered possession or access, Texas Family Code § 157.168 allows the court to order additional periods of possession to make up for what was lost. That make-up time has to match the type and duration of what was denied, weekend for weekend, holiday for holiday, and generally has to happen within two years of the court’s finding that the denial occurred. Ordering make-up time is usually discretionary, but since a 2023 amendment, it becomes closer to mandatory, absent good cause shown otherwise, when the denial resulted from a Department of Family and Protective Services investigation that did not find abuse or neglect.
There Is a Built-In Defense: Voluntary Relinquishment
A parent accused of violating possession terms is not without options. Under Texas Family Code § 157.007, it is an affirmative defense to contempt that the parent seeking enforcement voluntarily gave up their own actual possession and control of the child during the periods now being disputed. The relinquishment has to cover the specific court-ordered time in question, not just a general pattern of flexibility between the parents, so the facts of exactly what happened during the disputed dates end up mattering a great deal.
When Repeated Violations Point Toward Modification Instead
A single enforcement action does not change the underlying custody order, and winning one does not automatically give a parent grounds to modify conservatorship or the possession schedule. But a documented pattern of violations can sometimes support a separate argument that circumstances have materially and substantially changed under § 156.101, turning what started as an enforcement problem into a modification case. Whether that step makes sense depends on the specific history, not just the most recent violation.
Parents dealing with a Texas custody order that is not being followed often benefit from mapping out early whether the situation calls for enforcement, modification, or both, since filing the wrong one first can cost months. A firm like The Ramage Law Group can help sort out which deadlines actually apply and what evidence each type of motion requires before anything gets filed.
The Bottom Line
A violated Texas custody order does not automatically mean the order itself needs to change. Enforcement, modification, and make-up time each follow their own rules, their own deadlines, and their own proof requirements, and treating them as interchangeable is one of the more common ways parents lose time they cannot get back in a custody dispute.