Can my husband try for custody of his daughter? What should we do?

[yates0326]

Background Information: My husband and I live in Tennessee. My step-daughter and her mother live in Arkansas. Currently, we get her every other weekend, and 6 weeks in the summer time. The mother has been married a total of 4 times. Once before my husband, my husband, once guy after my husband, and one guy for literally 2 months. She has lived with each of them with my step-daughter and is now looking to move in with boyfriend #2. She "says" she has gotten a job offer, but she has not worked or even tried to work since 2008. (Step-daughter is 7) She is now taking the child out of her school that she has been in for 2 years and moving her to another school district and moving in with this guy she has known for 4 months. My husband knows the guy from working with him in the past. He has been arrested and was a drunk (back then). Supposedly, he has "changed" per her words. In my husbands divorce papers it states that neither one is supposed to cohabitate with members of the opposite sex unless they are married. My husband and I are just at a loss of what to do. She keeps moving the child in and out of homes with various guys. This time, my husband actually knows the guy and it very upset about her moving in with him. I am just wondering if anyone has any suggestions of what we do. She is obviously violating her divorce decree. But do we have a fighting chance of getting custody?

 

[Silverplum]

Background Information: My husband and I live in Tennessee. My step-daughter and her mother live in Arkansas. Currently, we get her every other weekend, and 6 weeks in the summer time. The mother has been married a total of 4 times. Once before my husband, my husband, once guy after my husband, and one guy for literally 2 months. She has lived with each of them with my step-daughter and is now looking to move in with boyfriend #2. She "says" she has gotten a job offer, but she has not worked or even tried to work since 2008. (Step-daughter is 7) She is now taking the child out of her school that she has been in for 2 years and moving her to another school district and moving in with this guy she has known for 4 months. My husband knows the guy from working with him in the past. He has been arrested and was a drunk (back then). Supposedly, he has "changed" per her words. In my husbands divorce papers it states that neither one is supposed to cohabitate with members of the opposite sex unless they are married. My husband and I are just at a loss of what to do. She keeps moving the child in and out of homes with various guys. This time, my husband actually knows the guy and it very upset about her moving in with him. I am just wondering if anyone has any suggestions of what we do. She is obviously violating her divorce decree. But do we have a fighting chance of getting custody?

Not that I see. (And there is no "we" in this legal matter.)

 

[LdiJ]

Background Information: My husband and I live in Tennessee. My step-daughter and her mother live in Arkansas. Currently, we get her every other weekend, and 6 weeks in the summer time. The mother has been married a total of 4 times. Once before my husband, my husband, once guy after my husband, and one guy for literally 2 months. She has lived with each of them with my step-daughter and is now looking to move in with boyfriend #2. She "says" she has gotten a job offer, but she has not worked or even tried to work since 2008. (Step-daughter is 7) She is now taking the child out of her school that she has been in for 2 years and moving her to another school district and moving in with this guy she has known for 4 months. My husband knows the guy from working with him in the past. He has been arrested and was a drunk (back then). Supposedly, he has "changed" per her words. In my husbands divorce papers it states that neither one is supposed to cohabitate with members of the opposite sex unless they are married. My husband and I are just at a loss of what to do. She keeps moving the child in and out of homes with various guys. This time, my husband actually knows the guy and it very upset about her moving in with him. I am just wondering if anyone has any suggestions of what we do. She is obviously violating her divorce decree. But do we have a fighting chance of getting custody?

Probably not. You don't live in the same state as the child and therefore mom moving is irrelevant. Mom obviously hasn't been changing the child's school every few months so there is nothing to go on there. A judge is unlikely to care how many times mom has been married. Unless the new boyfriend's record indicates that he is a danger to children there isn't anything to go on there either.

I do understand dad's concerns, but its pretty weak from a legal standpoint. Did you and dad live together at all before you got married? If so, forget about attempting to uphold that part of the decree...and even if you didn't, that is a difficult to enforce.

 

[CJane]

Also... If Dad didn't bother to do anything legally the last several times Mom lived with a guy, the courts don't care this time.