First some background: Our daughter was formerly divorced from her ex-husband this past June '08. She has a 16 year old son from a former marriage, and a 5 year old son with her ex. They have been sharing their son 50-50, and gets no child support from him. She is not college educated, and although she has a good job resume, has been having difficulty finding work in the current employment climate. She gets some help from the government, a small stipend from her 1st husband, and some financial help from us. Her dad & I have been able to provide her with a small, but very decent home. She has no social life. She works very hard taking care of her home & her kids, particularly raising a teenager by herself (with our support). She is an excellent, loving, caring mother.
Her ex has remarried & has a painting business we helped him get started in, which is a mostly seasonal business with not much income. We often had to help them with house payments, & gave them the down payment on their house. Our daughter was not working when he left her, leaving her with no means of making house or utility payments. We managed to sell their place as a short sale, but got nothing from it. Now that he has remarried he has the extra income from his new wife.
The situation: Our daughter's ex is an extremely paranoid, vindictive, controlling person. He is always threatening to limit her time with their son using as excuses her lack of a job, accusing her of things that are unfounded, trys to prohibit friends he no longer approves of, objects to her letting her 16 year old babysit while she goes to the store, etc, etc. He sees no faults with himself, is always rediculing her for leaning on her parents, & critizies her at every opportunity. (Apparently, she is suppose to go it alone with no family support, although he has the support of his wife & family & isn't a financial success himself.) When she does try to challenge him his usual reply is: "You don't want to go there." We are all afraid of standing up to him because he is so vindictive. Her constant fear is he will try to take their son away from her.
I was prompted to seek out this site because he just told her, for the reasons I've just described, he is only going to allow her to have their son 3 days out of the week, instead of the 50-50 it has been. When she objected he threatened to take her to court. It's impossible to discuss anything with him because of his in-your-face, argumentative & controlling personality. He jumps to conclusions without justification, & is over protective of their son.
I have taken this much time to ask, if under the circumstances I've laid out, if he has the right to limit how often our daughter has their son. I would appreciate any other advice or information you could provide.
Her ex has remarried & has a painting business we helped him get started in, which is a mostly seasonal business with not much income. We often had to help them with house payments, & gave them the down payment on their house. Our daughter was not working when he left her, leaving her with no means of making house or utility payments. We managed to sell their place as a short sale, but got nothing from it. Now that he has remarried he has the extra income from his new wife.
The situation: Our daughter's ex is an extremely paranoid, vindictive, controlling person. He is always threatening to limit her time with their son using as excuses her lack of a job, accusing her of things that are unfounded, trys to prohibit friends he no longer approves of, objects to her letting her 16 year old babysit while she goes to the store, etc, etc. He sees no faults with himself, is always rediculing her for leaning on her parents, & critizies her at every opportunity. (Apparently, she is suppose to go it alone with no family support, although he has the support of his wife & family & isn't a financial success himself.) When she does try to challenge him his usual reply is: "You don't want to go there." We are all afraid of standing up to him because he is so vindictive. Her constant fear is he will try to take their son away from her.
I was prompted to seek out this site because he just told her, for the reasons I've just described, he is only going to allow her to have their son 3 days out of the week, instead of the 50-50 it has been. When she objected he threatened to take her to court. It's impossible to discuss anything with him because of his in-your-face, argumentative & controlling personality. He jumps to conclusions without justification, & is over protective of their son.
I have taken this much time to ask, if under the circumstances I've laid out, if he has the right to limit how often our daughter has their son. I would appreciate any other advice or information you could provide.
