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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Mesquite, TX
    Posts
    2

    Default How can a Non-Custodial Parent Obtain Primary Custody or Full Custody

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

    I am a non-custodial parent of a 5 year old girl. I have no felonies or a history of family violence. I have been paying child support for 4 years now, and I am ahead on these payments. I've been gainfully employed since becoming an adult. My daughter lives with her mother, which also has no felonies (that I know of).
    My daughter's mother has had a case with Child Protective Services in which all 3 of her children were removed from the home. The reason why the children were removed was due to her extreme alcoholism. My daughter was given to me while her mother completed a rehabilitation program. I had a good relationship with the CPS officer and she told me that she would help me with getting custody of my daughter. It was later explained to me that they were not trying to split of the mother's family and that they needed her to get herself better so the children could go back to her. I gave the mother another chance to do right by her children and didn't pursue custody at that time. Her mother then entered a program for single mothers that provided housing and childcare while the mother went to school to further their careers or better their lives. She had to move 250 miles away and a new order was agreed upon where I would get visitation once every month and 6 weeks during the summer. (I think it was a pretty standard order) -- So, the mother called me 5 months after being at this program and tells me that she didn't like it where she was and was coming back to Dallas. When she got back to Dallas, she got a job, a home, and overall seemed like she was finally getting on the right track with life.

    About a month ago things started changing. I couldn't reach her on the phone, couldn't get my daughter on my weekends, and most of the time wasn't home. I chalked it up as her working all the time. When I finally reached her, she asked me to pick up my daughter from her grandmother's house. I asked what happened to my daughter. I was told that her mother had started drinking again and she couldn't see her while she was drunk. This is a 5 year old girl telling me this. Apparently, there was an issue where the police were called because she was drunk and was fighting with her oldest daughter. This is not the first time the police have been involved in a situation with her while she was drunk and violent.

    I'm torn because her older children will end up in foster care if they are taken away from her again, and they are very good kids and don't deserve that. I don't want to get CPS involved, again (I promised my daughter I wouldn't if she told me the truth about what was going on and I don't want to lie to her), but I don't want my little girl to be put back into a volatile situation where her well-being is threatened. I need to get custody, need to know if her instability and track record justifies the court to remove my daughter and give me custody whether it be primary or full, and how I can go about getting the ball rolling the fastest way possible. She needs a normal upbringing and deserves it.

    Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated. I don't have a lot of money, but I can always make payments, so if you know of any legal counsel that will work with me, please let me know.

    Thank you.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    16,474

    Default Re: Ncp - Need Advice and Directions on How to Obtain Primary Custody or Full Custody

    Dad, you need more than the word of a 5 year old child to proceed. The prior incident won't help you unless you can obtain current evidence that the situation is repeating itself.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Louisville, KY
    Posts
    1,877

    Default Re: Ncp - Need Advice and Directions on How to Obtain Primary Custody or Full Custody

    You shouldn't make promises you can't keep to your child in order to get her to tell you the truth. Yes, your child deserves a decent life, but what of the other children? At what point would you break your promise to your child and call cps? If someone was physically abused? Sexually? If mother got drunk and burned down the house?

    You should explain to your dd that you made a mistake, that you never should have made that promise to her because it's unfair to her and unfair to the other children not to report back to CPS that mom is back on the drunk train again.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Mesquite, TX
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Ncp - Need Advice and Directions on How to Obtain Primary Custody or Full Custody

    Police were called when her mother was fighting with her oldest child. I can request the police report. I just don't know if the police reported that she was intoxicated.

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