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can sexual abuse by child to child be grounds for me to lose custody

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Oregon
My girlfriend's son (7 years old) was caught with his private parts in his friends mouth
I'm considering ending the relationship with her over it partly because of the ramification it would have on my custody rights if it was to happen to my son
is child/child sexual abuse grounds for losing custody? is it grounds to have me ruled unsafe, or unfit?
 


It may sound harsh, but I would not let my children anywhere near your girlfriend's son or his friend. Your custody rights are in danger by merely putting your children at risk by putting them in close contact with individuals who have a higher risk of abusing them. If it were me, I'd end the relationship. My children are far more important than any love interest.

How old is the girlfriend's son's friend? What is your girlfriend doing about this situation?
 
It may sound harsh, but I would not let my children anywhere near your girlfriend's son or his friend. Your custody rights are in danger by merely putting your children at risk by putting them in close contact with individuals who have a higher risk of abusing them. If it were me, I'd end the relationship. My children are far more important than any love interest.

How old is the girlfriend's son's friend? What is your girlfriend doing about this situation?

firstly i want to say i agree. to protect my son is my top priority, i just wanted to gather a bit of information first and not jump the gun on anything.
I believe the boy (the friend) is a year younger, so 6
it happened over the weekend but she will be contacting his counselor at school as well as some kind of trauma specialist this week.
 
I think it is 100% reasonable to at a minimum tell your girlfriends that because of the risk to your child, you need to take a break. In the mean time, call your lawyer to discuss how to best protect your child, and custody, and contact a pediatrician to determine if you need to do anything to be sure that nothing has happened.
 

not2cleverRed

Obvious Observer
is child/child sexual abuse grounds for losing custody? is it grounds to have me ruled unsafe, or unfit?

1) Yes. 2) It can be.

The key is the choices you make going forward. Your job as a parent is to do what you can to protect your child. Do you live with your girlfriend?
 
1) Yes. 2) It can be.

The key is the choices you make going forward. Your job as a parent is to do what you can to protect your child. Do you live with your girlfriend?

no i do not
the boy and my son, have had very little unsupervised time together
just playing in my son's room, with the door open, while i cooked and only 2 times
 
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no i do not
the boy and my son, have had very little unsupervised time together
just playing in my son's room, with the door open, while i cooked and only 2 times

You can't go back and undo the past, But you can make the best choices for your son from this point forward. What concerns me here is you are not saying "I will do what is in my child's best interest even if it means I need to break up with my girlfriend."

It is impossible to say that you are able to supervise 100% at any time if your girlfriend and son are with you and your son. You may need to use the bathroom, answer the door, clean up a spill, stub a toe, and roll on the floor in pain for 5 minutes, etc. What happens if they spend the night? If the tables were turned and we were talking about your ex's partner's child, how would you feel?
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
no i do not
the boy and my son, have had very little unsupervised time together
just playing in my son's room, with the door open, while i cooked and only 2 times

How old is your son?

You and your girlfriend do not live together. Therefore it would be super simple to supervise the two children on the rare occasion that you simply cannot avoid them being together. Plus the child is only 7. At that age they don't even know what they are doing in that respect. Therefore, I do not think that there is any reason why you would have to take the drastic step of breaking up with your girlfriend.
 
What concerns me here is you are not saying "I will do what is in my child's best interest even if it means I need to break up with my girlfriend."
i will just wanted to get more information first
most abnormal sexual behavior guides ive read talk more about
  • the forcing of the other participant (which i don't think happened here)
  • large age gaps in participants
  • frequency, inability to stop
  • aggression during acts
rather then specific acts

i dont like just reacting to things, i prefer to gain knowledge first and make an informed decision
 
How old is your son?

You and your girlfriend do not live together. Therefore it would be super simple to supervise the two children on the rare occasion that you simply cannot avoid them being together. Plus the child is only 7. At that age they don't even know what they are doing in that respect. Therefore, I do not think that there is any reason why you would have to take the drastic step of breaking up with your girlfriend.
my son is 6
rawr
this is probably the only thing causing me to question the decision to end it with her
at 7 its really not about sex (as us adults see it at least)
and as mentioned in my previous reply its not even specifically labelled as abnormal or troubling behavior
we are all appalled but from a 7 year old's mind, its just play
 
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not2cleverRed

Obvious Observer
my son is 6
rawr
this is probably the only thing causing me to question the decision to end it with her
at 7 its really not about sex (as us adults see it at least)
and as mentioned in my previous reply its not even specifically labelled as abnormal or troubling behavior
we are all appalled but from a 7 year old's mind, its just play

Your kid is 6. The other kid is 7. It's pretty common for older kids to boss around younger kids. Keep your kid away from ANYONE you find questionable. You've been posting here, so that would indicate that something about this alarmed you. Since you don't live with your girlfriend, during your parenting time, focus on your son, away from your girlfriend.

But yeah, maybe you should break up. If you marry, you'll become stepdad to this problem child, and you'll be seeing your kid a lot less. And if you're not seeing marriage in the future, then you shouldn't be bringing temporary romantic interests around your kids.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
Your kid is 6. The other kid is 7. It's pretty common for older kids to boss around younger kids. Keep your kid away from ANYONE you find questionable. You've been posting here, so that would indicate that something about this alarmed you. Since you don't live with your girlfriend, during your parenting time, focus on your son, away from your girlfriend.

But yeah, maybe you should break up. If you marry, you'll become stepdad to this problem child, and you'll be seeing your kid a lot less. And if you're not seeing marriage in the future, then you shouldn't be bringing temporary romantic interests around your kids.

With a one year age gap either child could end up being the dominant child. Also, it wasn't his child involved in the incident, it was another child and his girlfriend's child. We don't know that his girlfriend's child was the instigator in that incident. It could have easily been the other child.

Again though, there is no reason for his child and his girlfriend's child to be around each other much, if any, and if they are, there is no reason why they cannot be supervised. Dad is alarmed because he is afraid it could lose him his custody time. If he handles this properly and sensibly there is no reason why it would. Should his child's mother attempt to make a stink about it in court all dad would have to do is explain that the children are rarely around each other and on the rare occasion that they are, they are strictly supervised.

I don't believe that a child should be labeled as a "problem child" on the basis of one incident at age 7. By all means keep the children either apart or strictly supervised until there is a better handle on the situation, but otherwise there is no reason to go nuclear on the basis of one incident.
 

commentator

Senior Member
I from a background in child development and counseling would say that what a child acts out is what they have had exposure to. If a child came up with the idea of getting someone else to put his genitals in their mouth, he saw it somewhere or heard of it somewhere. Someone around them is either doing it to them, talking about it to them, or watching porn somewhere they can access it. And now he's into "sharing the fun" because he's curious about it. Frankly, I would run like crazy from this situation. If this were my child, you were my child's father, and I was sharing custody with you, and I got the faintest idea this had happened, I would be taking you back to court pronto if you did not most immediately cease and desist all contact with these people, mom and child. If you wouldn't, I would do my darndest to make it happen. Incidentally, I do not believe a child should be labeled a problem child without good cause, but I'd be watching this child, having this child to counseling, trying to figure out where the exposure was coming from.

I'm old, I've seen much, and we had this sort of problem with a much younger than my child little girl in our church children's group. It turned out that yes, one of mom's many "friends" was the one giving her the idea of seeing other children naked, little games behind closed doors, etc. She wasn't a "problem child" to be labeled, she was a child who had a problem, in that her mother was too interested in her social life and not culling bad people out of her life and not watching her closely enough. That did not mean I was going to let my child be exposed to her curiosity.
 
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LdiJ

Senior Member
I from a background in child development and counseling would say that what a child acts out is what they have had exposure to. If a child came up with the idea of getting someone else to put his genitals in their mouth, he saw it somewhere or heard of it somewhere. Someone around them is either doing it to them, talking about it to them, or watching porn somewhere they can access it. And now he's into "sharing the fun" because he's curious about it. Frankly, I would run like crazy from this situation. If this were my child, you were my child's father, and I was sharing custody with you, and I got the faintest idea this had happened, I would be taking you back to court pronto if you did not most immediately cease and desist all contact with these people, mom and child. If you wouldn't, I would do my darndest to make it happen. Incidentally, I do not believe a child should be labeled a problem child without good cause, but I'd be watching this child, having this child to counseling, trying to figure out where the exposure was coming from.

I'm old, I've seen much, and we had this sort of problem with a much younger than my child little girl in our church children's group. It turned out that yes, one of mom's many "friends" was the one giving her the idea of seeing other children naked, little games behind closed doors, etc. She wasn't a "problem child" to be labeled, she was a child who had a problem, in that her mother was too interested in her social life and not culling bad people out of her life and not watching her closely enough. That did not mean I was going to let my child be exposed to her curiosity.

I respect your point of view but we don't know which child is "sharing the fun" and which child is on the receiving end. I do agree that getting the child into counseling is a huge part of "getting a handle on it". Once again I am recommending that dad act properly and sensibly to protect his child. I just don't agree that it automatically means that he needs to break up with the child's mother, at least not at this point.
 
thank you all for the input
just to re-iterate, my son; his well being and safety are my top priority
thank you LdiJ for being reasonable
as for the rest of you I dont disagree, its how i feel inside

tbh for me, i think the risk is too great
i know my ex would be like commentator and if she got wind of it, take be back to court "pronto"

its not an easy choice, me and her and the boys got along really good over the past 6 months
i think im just not good and letting go
but knowing why (my sons well being) will push me to make the hard decision
 

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