If you are married but separated, your wife has no greater rights than you as it pertains to your child. If she is excluding you from your child's life, your option is to file either an action for divorce or an action for shared parenting and timesharing. In either type of action, issues of timesharing and parental rights will be addressed and resolved.
If agreement cannot otherwise be reached, the court will determine these issues based on the best interests of the child. Factors that the court will consider include, but are not limited to, considerations such as each parent's disposition to encourage a close and continuing parent-child relationship with the other parent, to communicate with and keep the other parent informed of issues and activities regarding the child, and to engage in joint decision-making with the other parent regarding matters concerning the child's welfare and best interests. Parental alienation is certainly a negative factor for a parent who allows that to happen.
It is not necessarily against a child's best interests for a parent to take the child to visit his or her family in another state, but absent some specific justification, the other parent should have the same right. There is no presumption for or against the father or mother of the child pertaining to decisioin-making regarding the child, or for or against any specific time-sharing schedule. If your wife is not cooperating in allowing you to have frequent and continuing contact with your child, or allowing you to share the rights and responsibilities, and joys, of childrearing, you need to be pro-active in enforcing your parental rights in court.
Answered on Aug 10th, 2015 at 9:55 AM