Guardianship

[Samanthalj]

Jurisdiction

Georgia

Alrighty I don't know where to start... so about two months ago my sister in law needed help with her children, for numerous reasons mainly because of a series of bad decisions on her part. So my mother in law and I got together and decided to keep the children for her. My sister went to two different schools and signed a paper with us saying she lived here and there. But now she is running around not taking care of anything. She let her apartment go and moved in with a bf and his mother! She doesn't help at all, she doesn't even call. Well in the pass few months we have had the kids open up and explain what they were going through. We found out their mothers bf is abusive towards her, we found out that they were wearing dirty clothes everyday which explained the scapes they all had. they barely had food even tho she is getting 400+ in food stamps. So I am considering filing for custody but the problem I am having now is their mom is fighting for child support with their dad. He left three years ago this august...he told her he was done with her bullshit and has not tried to contact them at all. Until he got a letter about child support about two weeks ago and now he is wanting the kids. He left and started a completely new family and had three more kids and is trying to say he didn't want to leave them but their mom made him!!!. Which I wouldnt put it passed her but I feel like he could of still tried to fight for them. But he didn't. And he has several reports of domestic violence with my sister but also two in the past few years with his new wife. Do I have any legal rights to these kids.??? I love them so much and my husband and I feel like they are the ones getting the shorter stick here. We feel like their mom is just wanting to go out and be a teenager again and their dad just wants to do whatever he can to not have to pay child support, even if that means having 7 kids. But he just found out that we have the kids not my sister and now he is calling dfcs and I'm kinda scared we will get in trouble for lying to the school. Or causes we don't have legal custody which my sister is the only one who does. Their dad doesn't at all. What in the world can we do???

 

[army judge]

You have the rights I have to your nieces and nephews, NONE.
LEGALLY both of us are considered LEGAL strangers to those precious babies.

I understand you want to help the kids.
So, contact child services, report the neglect, abuse, malnourishment, and complete utter disregard your sister has exhibited over the last two years towards her children.

Inform child services of EVERYTHING, and offer to become emergency guardians along with your mother to the kids.

Start small, prove yourself, and maybe emergency guardianship can grow into permanent custody.

Right now the kids need medical and dental exams, counseling, and help.

The state, your mom, and you can work together to make that happen.

Good luck.

 

[leslie82]

Alrighty I don't know where to start... so about two months ago my sister in law needed help with her children, for numerous reasons mainly because of a series of bad decisions on her part. So my mother in law and I got together and decided to keep the children for her. My sister went to two different schools and signed a paper with us saying she lived here and there. But now she is running around not taking care of anything. She let her apartment go and moved in with a bf and his mother! She doesn't help at all, she doesn't even call. Well in the pass few months we have had the kids open up and explain what they were going through. We found out their mothers bf is abusive towards her, we found out that they were wearing dirty clothes everyday which explained the scapes they all had. they barely had food even tho she is getting 400+ in food stamps. So I am considering filing for custody but the problem I am having now is their mom is fighting for child support with their dad. He left three years ago this august...he told her he was done with her bullshit and has not tried to contact them at all. Until he got a letter about child support about two weeks ago and now he is wanting the kids. He left and started a completely new family and had three more kids and is trying to say he didn't want to leave them but their mom made him!!!. Which I wouldnt put it passed her but I feel like he could of still tried to fight for them. But he didn't. And he has several reports of domestic violence with my sister but also two in the past few years with his new wife. Do I have any legal rights to these kids.??? I love them so much and my husband and I feel like they are the ones getting the shorter stick here. We feel like their mom is just wanting to go out and be a teenager again and their dad just wants to do whatever he can to not have to pay child support, even if that means having 7 kids. But he just found out that we have the kids not my sister and now he is calling dfcs and I'm kinda scared we will get in trouble for lying to the school. Or causes we don't have legal custody which my sister is the only one who does. Their dad doesn't at all. What in the world can we do???

Guess what? Dad still has rights to his kids. Mom has rights to her kids. You don't. If there is abuse going on you report it. That's about all you can do.

He probably is doing this to solely not pay child support. People do that all the time. There are NCPs who are absent as hell until child support comes up and then bam - they reappear.

If the mom has custody she can let her kids live where she allows them. There's nothing illegal to that. If she put down your address as one where she lives I don't see the issue. But their dad can call DFCS on his ex all he wants just as she can him or you could on her or her abusive boyfriend. In fact once you found out they said there was abuse you SHOULD have called. Because now it's gonna look bad on your part if they found out you knew about it and didn't report it. I believe ultimately anyone who knows about child abuse is supposed to report it.