Below text is a direct translation (via DeepL) of the De version of the L’essentiel article published on 2 December 2020.

202 days: This is how long a FATHER had to wait until he was allowed to see his two children again. On October 7, 2019, the divorce of the marriage between Julien* and his wife was executed at the Diekirch District Court. It was decided that the three children together should “live with one parent alternately in a seven-day rhythm”. (Résidence Alternée model)

This had also worked well until the beginning of the Corona crisis, as the father reported to L’essentiel. But from 23 March 2020 – a few days after the measures announced by the Luxembourg government – everything went wrong. The mother of the children had used the “health crisis” as an excuse to keep the two youngest children, aged six and seven, in lockdown until the new court decision.

And so it happened that Julien stopped seeing his children from the beginning of April. A report that can be confirmed by L’essentiel on the basis of several criminal charges and court documents. “They had to watch as their father repeatedly rang the doorbell and left without them,” explains one of the man’s lawyers. At the end of May, he had even written to the ministers of justice and family – but without success. Even the various applications to the court did not help. Until a few days ago.

” The change model has the advantage of stability ”

The mother did not want to take a position on L’essentiel’s request. In court, however, she stated that “the father’s behavior had caused a change in the behavior of her children”. Therefore, she had demanded the end of joint custody. Although there seemed to be no progress in this court case, Julien’s lawyers still believed that there could be a reconciliation. A family therapy report concluded in late October that there was “no reason why the father could not care for his children.

After a hearing – at the end of October – it was finally decided that the father could “gradually” take care of his children again and that after that father and mother would take turns again “from the first week in January 2021”. “The alternating model has the advantage of stability as it existed before the lockdown,” said the family judge. A story that reminds us how the general situation this year has affected some very private situations.