My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Arizona
My girlfriend is the primary physical custodian having joint custody with her ex husband. Her 6 year old daughter spends 2-3 hours every Saturday going with me to a hobby club while my girlfriend is working. During the time her daughter is there with me, she spends her time in an air conditioned building watching movies, coloring, etc., and I spend most of the time there at her side doing inventory and fixing equipment. The daughter finds it boring, but says the people there are very nice and polite to her. There have been instances where I have been right outside the building doing yard work, checking in on her every 5-15 minutes. Her father expressed concern over this arrangement after hearing about it and I invited him to visit the club on a Saturday when I could show him around.
We had arranged for him to come by and make the visit this past Saturday, but I was ill, advising him we would have to reschedule for another day; he decided to go there without me and take a look around, after which, he emailed my girlfriend stating he didn't feel it was a safe situation.
He felt due to there being adult males there and the daughter not being watched every single moment including when she would go to the bathroom, that she was in a dangerous environment where she could be kidnapped or molested. The father has a history of being over-protective. He expressed concern because she was not being walked to the bathroom and because some of the members talk to her. He also expressed concern because he was invited into the club to walk around and check it out. I guess he felt there should have been a doorman checking identification and then comparing information to the national sex offender registry before allowing admittance.
The club is outside of town with very little traffic and almost every single person that attends is not a newcomer to the club. The club has less than 6 people that attend each Saturday and each person is well-known to me and have families of their own. The mother has been to the hobby club, has met the people there and trusts that her daughter will be fine during the time spent there with me.
The father has threatened to call CPS if my girlfriend continues to allow their daughter to go to the club with me, but she has no alternative arrangements; she works, has no available funding for a babysitter for that time, and no family in the area. The father offered to watch the daughter from Friday evening until after she gets out of work on Saturday, but refuses to make the entire drive, wanting to meet in a mid-point location. He feels it's unreasonable for him to drive the 30 miles to our city and then back again to babysit for a few hours, even though he is the only one who feels that it's not appropriate for the daughter to go to the hobby club with me.
My girlfriend feels her daughter IS safe with me and sees it as unnecessary to make alternate arrangements for care. Her allowing their daughter to spend Friday through Saturday evening also would cut into her parenting time if she allows her daughter to spend those Friday evenings with the father. He has stated if she wants to have a third party determine the appropriateness of care, she is welcome to do that, but he is prepared to call CPS if she doesn't comply with his demand to stop allowing their daughter to attend the hobby club with me on Saturdays.
As primary physical custodian, does she have he right to choose care arrangements despite the father disagreeing?

