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§ 02
01

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Spring 2026 co-parenting summary

CASE
Reyes v. Carter
COURT
Fairfax County Circuit Court
JURISDICTION
Fairfax County, Virginia
GENERATED
May 2, 2026

Pattern: late pickups, January – April 2026

Across the four-month period, the majority of pickups assigned to David Carter under the parenting plan arrived materially late, with an average delay of 47 minutes. The reasons cited at the time were inconsistent with the surrounding evidence, traffic conditions, work obligations, and in several instances no reason was offered at all [1][2].

The pattern is consistent enough that Ms. Reyes has begun arriving at scheduled pickups expecting to wait, and on multiple occasions has had to manage the children's reactions on site rather than transitioning them. The effect on the children is documented at Specific incidents, below.

Specific incidents

March 28, 2026, Mr. Carter arrived 37 minutes late for a 5:30 PM Friday pickup. Lucy (age 8) missed her 6:00 PM dance class as a direct result [3]. The cited reason was traffic on I-66; INRIX traffic data for that corridor shows free-flow conditions throughout the relevant window.

April 12, 2026, Ms. Reyes was scheduled to receive the children at 6:00 PM per Section IV of the parenting plan. At 12:45 PM that day, Mr. Carter notified Ms. Reyes via OFW that he intended to retain the children for an additional night, characterizing the parenting plan as "flexible when it has to be" [4]. The exchange did not occur until the following morning.

References

[1]
OFW Message #1981Re: Friday pickup
Maya Reyes to David Carter · Mar 28, 2026, 5:32 PM
I'm at the school for the 5:30 pickup. Lucy and Theo are here. Where are you?
[2]
OFW Message #1983Re: Friday pickup
David Carter to Maya Reyes · Mar 28, 2026, 6:07 PM
Sorry, traffic was a nightmare on 66. On my way.
[3]
OFW Message #1984Re: Friday pickup
Maya Reyes to David Carter · Mar 28, 2026, 6:24 PM
Lucy missed her 6:00 dance class. Please give me a heads up next time so I can adjust.
[4]
OFW Message #2014Re: Friday pickup
David Carter to Maya Reyes · Apr 12, 2026, 12:45 PM
I had them all week and we have plans tonight. You can have them tomorrow. The plan is flexible when it has to be.
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The court doesn't see most of it. The other parent denies it. Your friends don't fully get it. Your therapist hears one side. And somewhere along the way you stopped trusting your own version of what happened.

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From the founder

I started writing things down during my own custody case because I couldn't trust my memory anymore. Not because I was forgetting, but because every time I tried to talk about what happened, it came out smaller than it was. Daylight is the tool I wished I had, a place to say the whole thing, in my own words, before I had to translate it for anyone else.

— Kyle Johnson · Richmond, VA

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