So here it goes, I have 4 children to my ex partner who has a girlfriend and has been with her for about 3 years now, now here's the problem 3 out of my 4 children don't want to go to their dads especially my eldest who is 11 and has admitted he hates his dad's GF, the GF speaks to my children like crap, she has told my children to F@#k off. My 5yo at the time was grounded for 2 weeks because she said "no" but her own children steal off of her and she doesn't bat an eye! ..so today my daughter who is 9 tells me that her dad hit her with a jug cord last night and while there were no marks today she said it was really red and that his gf has said that if my daughter was hers she would have knocked my daughter out already. When I confronted my ex about this he admitted about hitting her with the cord but said "it wasn't hard and didn't leave a welt mark" and denies his GF had said about knocking my daughter out he was diagnosed with bi-polar and is medicated but he doesn't take his medication and the GF has severe depression and also doesn't take her medication because she is pregnant with their 3rd child and "makes her sick"..so in the end while it became a heated arguement he ends up threatening to hit my car or hit my face.. So my question is can I take this to mediation or court? Worried about my children safety? In a house with 2 people who should be on meds and are not and I'm honestly scared either of them could just flip!
8 Replies
I would absolutely be contacting child protection and seeking advice from them. I'd probably seek legal advice from a legal service. If your mediation agreement has not been signed off on by the courts it is not legally binding.
I just want to say as clearly as I can, hitting a child with an object is physical abuse.
No person is allowed to hit a child with an object as it's now deemed abuse. I would also contact child protection. I'm sorry you have to deal with this xx
We have no court orders or mediation papers, I am contacting legal aid tomorrow regarding his visits and express my concerns about what is going on I also have it recorded him admitting he hit my daughter and also when he threatened me.. Il be contacting child services and hopefully they will agree with me to stop all visits I seriously don't want me kids going through this sometimes
If you have no mediation papers you are under no obligation to send them. I would as a pre-emotive strike (after seeking legal advice) consider organising mediation asking for supervised visits only.
Please keep them away until you can get to mediation. Then I would seek supervised visits. Your kids need to know thats not acceptable behaviour and they need to feel protected by you. If you send them back to his house what message are you sending them?
^^That is something someone once told me when I was feeling bad about asking for supervised visits for my children's dad. Good luck xx sounds like you're on the right track
Defiantly wait till you can get supervised visitation. That is not on. If they were both on meds and getting some psychological treatment mental health shouldn't be an issue, how ever in this case I believe (and the courts will to) that they are not fit to be around your children unsupervised.
Call child protection & stop all access immediately, I had to do this at one point for my children. Then start the mediation process. It's your job to protect your children. Child protection won't do anything but it's good to have it on record. They told me because my kids had one parent (me) looking out for their best interests who would keep them safe that they wouldn't get involved. Good luck.