hereformysibs
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Illinois
In July of 2016, my mother lost all legal custody of my now 8 year old twin sisters. In October of 2017 I, their half sister, obtained 6 hours a month visitation time of my sisters at the ages of 19. This was due to the fact that I had taken care of the girls when all of my sibling and I lived with our mother. Ever since obtaining visiting time I have attended visits with the girls under strict supervision of their father. Visits are held in public places, restaurants, parks, etc, with his entire family present (including his girlfriend and 3 kids from another relationship) for around 3 hours twice a month. For the past almost 2 years, I have followed all his strict rules and have attempted to build his trust in the hopes of one day being able to spend quality time with my sisters alone. It had been well over 3 years that I have been unable to see them without their father and his family present. As of recently there has been a lot of drama tied to visits mostly surrounding his girlfriends expectations, including not buying presents for his 3 other children at Christmas time, accusations of favoring the twins of the other 3 children, not allowing the girls to attend holiday functions alone, and drama at family functions that do not evolve me, etc. I am just wanting to be able to spend drama free, quality time with my sisters. I'm wondering if I have any options beyond this point as their sibling? I am the only individual on their mothers side that actually makes an effort to see them, I'm 21 years old now and I was wondering if I could possibly take their father back to court for unsupervised visits or joint custody? Am i even able to apply for joint custody? I know grandparents are sometimes able to be like a proxy for one side of the family and I'm wondering if that would be an option for me? i just would like them to be able for them to attend holidays with our side of the family, spend the night at my houses, and/or just spend the day with me and our 6 other siblings as they are able to do with their family members on their dads side. The girls have also expressed their interest in spending more time with me as well. As of right now my mothers isn't able to attend my visits and if i were to get unsupervised i would keep it that way.
