Dean Mark Gottschalk appeals the trial court’s order modifying the terms of his visitation with his two children. He also appeals more than a dozen other orders entered during the course of this litigation. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. The record contains many motions, hearing transcripts, and orders. The index lists 227 documents, including at least eight contempt petitions. Due to the size of the record, the number of orders being reviewed, and the importance of the case to the parties, this court granted the appellant’s motion to file a brief of 50 pages rather than 30, and he has enumerated 17 errors. We have undertaken a thorough review of each pleading and transcript in the 15-volume record, as well as each of the trial court’s orders. The trial court has explained the reasoning behind its actions, either orally during hearings or in its written orders, all of which are fact-intensive. Although we have carefully considered each of the appellant’s enumerations and the responses of appellee Karen Ann Gottschalk, we will not restate all of the bases for each of the trial court’s rulings being appealed. The law recognizes that because children are not immutable objects but living beings who mature and develop in unforeseeable directions, the initial award of custody may not always remain the selection that promotes the best interests of the child. While we recognize that visitation rights even extensive visitation rights do not constitute custody, visitation rights are a part of custody and changes in one parent’s visitation rights necessarily affect the custodial rights of the other parent. Material changes in one parent’s visitation rights also necessarily implicate the best interests of the child because visitation controls the child’s contact with the non-custodial parent. Children do not understand or care about the legal niceties the courts draw between visitation and custody: it is the child’s contact with the parent that impacts the child’s best interests, not whether that contact occurs under the label of visitation or custody. Material changes in the amount of contact with a parent affect a child’s best interests regardless whether that parent is the custodial or non-custodial parent. Citations and punctuation omitted. Dellinger v. Dellinger , 278 Ga. 732, 739 1 609 SE2d 331 2004. In reviewing the correctness of rulings in visitation cases, “we do not substitute our judgment on the evidence for that of the trial judge. It is our duty to affirm unless there is an abuse of discretion in the trial court, and we find none here.” Homans v. Street , 237 Ga. 649 229 SE2d 432 1976.
The parties were divorced in March 2005, and consented to joint legal and physical custody of their two minor children, with primary physical custody and decision-making with the appellee. The final divorce decree provided that the parents were to consult and “consider each other’s input” on all major decisions involving the children, and to inform each other of the children’s whereabouts and extra-curricular activities. The decree also included very detailed visitation provisions, giving the appellant visitation every other weekend, every Wednesday afternoon, and alternating holidays. In April 2006, a little more than a year after the divorce, the appellee filed a petition seeking to modify the terms of the appellant’s visitation so that it would be supervised. She also sought an order requiring the appellant to undergo psychological evaluation.
