maternal grandmother seeks custody

[gooma]

My daughter ran away at age 14 because I forbid her to see her boyfriend 17 yrs old at the time. The boyfriend and his family hid her from me, the police and his moms parole officer for 2 months. My daughters father and the police finally retrieved her from the house. Well, guess what, she came home pregnant. She delivered a beautiful healthy baby girl at 15 yrs old. The baby is now 6.5 months old. My daughter and grand daughter live at home with me. The father, now 18 yrs old, and paternal grandmother have been taking us to court for the past 5 months. Paternity has been established. The custody/visitation petition was dismissed as the father and paternal grandmother were late to court and considered not there. The father then filed another petition. Well, I filed a petition myself as well for custody of my grand daughter. My daughter is in agreement with my having custody understanding the fact that she is only a teenager, that I soley financially support the baby and am up nights when she is sick, take her to the doctor (my daughter there as well), take the baby to the sitter and pick her up. The father and his family have provided the baby with one pair of sneakers, one pack of socks and one pack of onsies over the past 6.5 months. Wait, the father also provided some Pedialyte and Tylenol Cold medicine after a week of my daughter calling him asking for it (I had already provided the baby with the medicine as soon as she was sick). When my daughter originally called him for the meds, he said "why can't your mom get it?".

Because of the way the child was conceived (with my daughter hidden) my daughter and I fear the baby going over to his house as we are afraid that they will try to keep and hide her. During the previous court case, before dismissal, the father had supervised visits at my house - 2 hrs on Sat and 2 hrs on Sun. When the petition was dismissed so was the order for the supervised visits.

We are now back in court. As I stated he has a petition for custody and visitation and I have a petition for custody (my daughter in agreement).

What are my chances of winning custody. Could the father and his family win custody? The baby is well provided for, healthy, has made all her dr apts and rec all her shots including flu shot.

They don't deserve this child. What should I do. Please help, I need advice. Our next court appearance is on 12/20.

 

[carney]

You will not win custody over the father. You are better off helping your daughter fight to keep HER custody. He will get visitation no matter what, but you need to show a judge a united front with your daughter because of her age and she needs to be strong that she wants custody of the baby. You have to let a judge know that you are there and will be there to help your daughter with the baby. You need to hire an attorney if you haven't already. He could win if she acts like she doesn't want custody or wants custody to go to you.
I don't know if there is a way of you bringing charges against him (or if you would want to) because she was so young and there is proof that they had sex. You might want to look into what could be done about that even though he was 17. Why wasn't the family charged with kidnapping? I know she ran away but the fact that they kept her from you and the police is still kidnapping.

 

[Duranie]

I agree, the father has more rights than you do. Your daughter should petition for custody and since she lives with you, you could help her out with the child.

Grandparents do not have more rights than the parents even if they are minors.

What does your attorney say? If the father is petitioning for custody and your daughter wants to give custody to you, the father does have a chance at winning. your daughter of course would get visitation but would probably have to pay child support as well.