My boyfriend is getting ready to go to court for custody of his son. The son lives with him in NY and will be a NY resident by the court date. The mother lives in Florida. His son was moving from state to state with the mother, but is now stable here in NY. The mother has since gotten a job and has made an arrangement for child care for when the child comes, though she is still not making enough to move on her own and is living with her father. But my boyfriend is afraid that although the child lives with him and is a NY state resident, the judge will give primary custody (custody during the school year) to the mother because she is the mother. He is very paranoid about prefernces to mothers. He wantst the child to see his mother, but she is insisting on him now agreeing to return to child so she can keep him for the summer and the next school year and he would not see the child untill Christmas. He told her they would have to go to court before the child goes anywhere so they have a legal agreeement instead of all the back and forth they have done in the past. But he is afraid if he ask for the living arragements to remain as they are, the judge will still remove the child from his home with his father and his own room, to give him to his mother in another state. I am under the impression a judge tries to avoid interupting the childs life as much as possible and in NY he is in school, baseball, gymnastics and has a lot more family. The child being sent away will not only interupt his life, but he would not have avialable to him all the extra activities or family he has here.
There has never been any complaint or any reason the father can be determined to be unfit or unable to take care of the child, in fact, he has been the childs only source of financial support in the 6 out of 7 years of the childs life. Also,the child may even have been affected mentally by the actions of the mother. We will know more when the child is evaluated in a few weeks. The child's behavior along with the fact a social worker in Florida previously ordered the mother to take the child to see a therapist and she never did, is why my boyfriend is going to.
The therapist will see the child well before court
So the questions are:
Is it correct to beleive that it is more likely the judge will keep the living situation as is (school year in NY with father, summers and vacations with mother in FL)?
Are my boyfriends concerns about a judge taking to child to live with the mother founded at all?
Does the issue with the child needing therapy and possibly being affected by the mothers actions affect the case in anyway? Or would we have to wait until the report from the therapist for an answer to this?
Sorry so long, but any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks.
There has never been any complaint or any reason the father can be determined to be unfit or unable to take care of the child, in fact, he has been the childs only source of financial support in the 6 out of 7 years of the childs life. Also,the child may even have been affected mentally by the actions of the mother. We will know more when the child is evaluated in a few weeks. The child's behavior along with the fact a social worker in Florida previously ordered the mother to take the child to see a therapist and she never did, is why my boyfriend is going to.
The therapist will see the child well before court
So the questions are:
Is it correct to beleive that it is more likely the judge will keep the living situation as is (school year in NY with father, summers and vacations with mother in FL)?
Are my boyfriends concerns about a judge taking to child to live with the mother founded at all?
Does the issue with the child needing therapy and possibly being affected by the mothers actions affect the case in anyway? Or would we have to wait until the report from the therapist for an answer to this?
Sorry so long, but any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks.
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