
Quoting
urbanchickenmom
I guess I should have been a little more specific when I said that the father could gain custody. He will establish paternity by signing the birth certificate which is what he and my niece want. He WANTS to be part of the child's life. So when my mother in law constantly says that he can't spend time with the child, I pointed out that if he is denied visitation then he can take her to court and possibly end up with custody if she continues to deny him access to the child. How would that work though if the courts granted him visitation and the grandmother refused to let him on her property? My niece is helpless in that situation so the courts wouldn't go after HER would they?
Btw, last year the grandmother made my husband and I promise that we would take my niece in if something happened to her. Of course we would take her and the baby in. This is not on paper though so I know if anything came up, our verbal agreement means nothing in the eyes of the court system. We are all my mil and niece have. That doesn't mean it's always peaceful or that we agree with each other on many topics. But my gosh is it ever emotionally exhausting.
Hopefully everything will work out and peace will resume. I actually just left their house after holding a family meeting. There was yelling and there were tears. But it was good to finally get ALL of our feelings and frustrations out and we left hugging and telling each other that we loved one another. It's just going to be a constant work in progress and hoping they will both seek counseling at least so they can talk about their feelings with someone outside of the situation.