casa said:
What?!?!?!
LdiJ, did you just advise this poster to fight for custody because Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer?!?!?!
When Dad has only been visiting child sporadically for the last 2 years? Child has lived with Gma entire 5 yrs. of life with Mom??
Are you serious? Would you have "advised" your X do the same when your child was this age???
No...I am not recommending that AT ALL...I am recommending that dad establish his legal rights.
Dad can file for joint legal custody or shared parenting without disturbing the existing physical custody arrangements.
Perhaps I missed something, but my impression was that dad has been consistantly part of the child's life since 2004....not sporadically. I don't think that we can even determine from the info provided that dad didn't want to be consistantly part of the child's life prior to that.
I do feel for grandparents who have developed a defacto type parental relationship with their grandchildren. However...the reality of things is that if the child has a bond with the ncp, the ncp is the one who will get custody.....and often will get custody even if a bond isn't established.
I have a grandchild living in my home....precious baby girl is three months old today. For the last couple of days I have been caring for her exclusively because my daughter is horribly sick (and the baby and I aren't much better...but no where near as sick as mom).....daddy (unfortunately) is awol at the moment.
However, I remind myself every day that I don't have any rights.....and remind myself every day that precious girl has two parents.....and a daddy that really does love her even if he is freaking out a bit right now. I REMIND myself that this time is not permanent.