lundi 25 février 2019

Custody and Visitation Issues: Trying to Get Custody from a Grandparent

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Pennsylvania

When I was young, before I was 18, I fathered a child and the mother moved out of New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. My son was born in 2011 and I was not made aware of the birth of my son until 2015 when the grandmother was seeking child support from me. Since 2015, I have been in my son's life on a consistent basis and I have observed that his mother is not in his life consistently. From my knowledge, she lives in Trenton, NJ with her boyfriend and another child she had about two years ago.Also from my knowledge, she does not attempt to see our son on her designated weekends to see him.

When I first met my son, he was having behavioral issues both at home and in school, there has even been a referral for Family Services to visit his home and he was in danger of imminent placement into foster care. Since then, I have been steadily working with him to improve his behavior but I feel that I can only do so much when his grandmother is not reinforcing the appropriate behaviors at home. I have also observed that my son does not seem to have a room in the apartment where he lives with his grandmother, it would seem that he sleeps on the floor from the few times I have been inside.

I have requested custody of my son many times and been told yes by the grandmother. She has told me many times that it would happen after school was over for the year. However, each time, she changes her mind each time because her daughter, my son's mother, gets upset and does not wish for me to have custody. We even had a hearing before a court mediator in Union county, NJ in December 2018. The mediator noted that she said she would give me custody until my son's mother was contacted, called the grandmother a few choice words, called me a few choice words and then hung up.

At this point, I am now more stable and feel that I can provide a better home for my son and hopefully I can steer him on the right path. I filed for custody of my son but I am nervous because the grandmother has had custody for so long and because it may look bad on my part that I was not in my son's life for the first years but I literally had no way on knowing about his birth until I received papers for a paternity test years later.

What do you all think is my best course of action and do you believe I have a chance of getting custody?


Custody and Visitation Issues: Trying to Get Custody from a Grandparent

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