Parental Rights

[sulebu]

In WV. what does a paternity affadavit have to do with custody or visitation. My daughter and her boyfriend signed it. Should she get an order of custody? They are no longer together and she does not ask nor does he offer child support. He lives in PA, but lived in WV when the baby was born. She would like him to visit the baby, but with her supervision. She aboslutely does not want the every other weekend or Holiday type visitation. We feel that the only reason he would fight for visitation is to get back at my daughter for leaving a hopeless situation. He tires of things very quickly and making the effort to drive the 2 hours from Pittsburgh to WV would soon get old. Plus the baby would interfer with his weekend drinking thing.

 

[MySonsMom]

Without an order of custody the father has just as many rights as the mother. He could come and take the child for the day and never return her and it would be perfectly legal. Your daughter needs to gain custody of the child. If they want to work out a visitation agreement on their own that is fine, but something needs to be filed that she has custody. Good luck!

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~MySonsMom~

 

[usdeeper]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by sulebu:
She would like him to visit the baby, but with her supervision. She aboslutely does not want the every other weekend or Holiday type visitation. We feel that the only reason he would fight for visitation is to get back at my daughter for leaving a hopeless situation. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Why does she want him to visit ??.. you know the old saying.. you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it waterski .. or something like that...

Anyway.. why stir up problems. You know that he may go to court just to cause her pain. Also, providing the child is over 2 years old then he can get visitation that involves overnight... however, before she allows that, she need to get custody sorted.

 

[sulebu]

Thank you for your responses. They were very helpful. We contacted our lawyer today who put us in contact with an attorney who specializes in family law. I was very interested in the comment that the babies father could only get overnight visitation if the child was at least 2 years old. Our grandaughter is only 4 months old and is still nursing. Could someone give me some more facts concerning this. Thank you.

 

[usdeeper]

Nursing is the number one reason why not to give overnight visits.. and many judges will back the mother on this up until 2 years.

However, the dads are fighting back.. One site I saw suggested that they buy the mother a very good quality breast pump and then take the milk with them with the child for overnight visits.

Personally I think it is silly and would fight any attempt to allow overnight visitation for any child who is nursing and less than 12 months old.

 

[paula2]

Something you may want to discuss with your lawyer is the fact that now in the State of WV joint custody is automatic unless you can show just cause that the child would be in danger while in the custody of the father.