now complains that this decree of the court has not been complied with. But plaintiff seeks to modify it. She alleges that she signed the stipulation which the decree of November 29, 1956, approved and adopted, under duress, the duress being her concern about moving to her husband's home in Oklahoma City and taking the child with her. She says the decree is not for the best interest and welfare of the child, experience having shown that compelling him to spend three months of each year in Webster City is detrimental to his general health and welfare; that the requirement for a bond to insure return of Ronald each summer is unconscionable; that the defendant is financially able to visit Ronald in Oklahoma City and to contribute tofairly expresses the plaintiff's contentions in regard to the interests and welfare of the boy. Her evidence is *755 that Ronald becomes somewhat disturbed as the time to come to Iowa for the summer approaches; he is taken away from his friends, his pets, his opportunities to go to summer camp and to play Little League baseball. His grades are not as good in the spring and fall as they are in the middle of the school year.
It needs no citation of authority for the proposition that a divided custody is to be avoided if reasonably possible. But often there is no alternative unless the child is to be cut off entirely from one parent; and this, also, is not usually for his best interest. The problem of