Ohiogal
Queen Bee
He doesn't have custody. They were never married. Therefore default custody rests with mom.
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Girlfriend left state with kids and has had no contact for 9 days
- Thread starter DadofFour
- Start date
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He doesn't have custody. They were never married. Therefore default custody rests with mom.
eerelations
Senior Member
OK. Just seems odd that he would seek custody when the kids (and their mother) are living with him 100% of the time.
Taxing Matters
Overtaxed Member
Not to me. He would want to have his rights established so that he can enforce them the moment the mother moves out and takes the kids with her. Waiting until that happens means it could be quite some time before he gets to see the kids again while he battles for his rights in the courts.
LdiJ
Senior Member
Custody is not just a designation as to where the children happen to live at the time. Its a legal designation. A married couple, by the legal designation, both have full joint custody of their children. It is not the same for an unwed couple. Only the mother automatically has that legal designation (in many states) unless a court has said differently.
Its not really all that unusual for someone who is living out of wedlock to establish court ordered custody.
CJane
Senior Member
He has no legal protections, whether they're living together or not. He absolutely SHOULD seek a custody - and child support - order, whether Mom returns or not.
Thank you everyone. I have been on the phone with attorneys and police all weekend. I was not trying to start drama by saying she is unfit. She was recently diagnosed with Bi Polar Disorder and is not to be left alone with the kids. We were supposed to drive together to OK, and she left a day early while my mom was in the shower and I was at work. Her own parents have not heard from her. She has no source of income and no home. I flew up there this weekend, and have been searching for her with her parents. We were not fighting and very happy. she blocked me from her cell phone and Facebook last night when i tried to call. We think she is with a friend that tagged her on Facebook bexause she is in the picture with her and the kids at the friend's house. we are trying to obtain the address so the police can do a welfare check. my attorney filed for an emergency order granting me temp custody of the kids and a judge has signed in OK as well. we are just trying to locate her so that I can tske the kids back home and start custody proceedings. Thank you all for your advice.
eerelations
Senior Member
Well, if we'd known at least some of this ("is not to be left alone with the kids" and "we were supposed to drive together to OK" among other things) we wouldn't have spent so much time discussing what we now know to be pretty irrelevant stuff. Sometimes you get better answers if you provide all the information.
CdwJava
Senior Member
Yeah ... those are pretty important details - though, only if the prohibition against being alone with the kids was issued by a court. The diagnosis of having bi-polar disorder does not impose any particular legal requirement for her not to be around the kids, though under the right circumstances it could support a petition for emergency custody as you have apparently done. Just don't think that the diagnosis alone is sufficient to render her incapable of having custody.