vnesuttsflytrap
Nov 9, 2012, 06:18 PM
I have a 3 year old daughter and I was never married to her father. We broke up 4 days before her birth and have been separated since. He has been giving me financial assistance for our child since her birth. The financial assistance is not court ordered but was a verbal agreement between him and I. When we broke up he verbally agreed to support me with a payment of $300 on the 1st and another $300 on the 15th of each month. A year later he decreased payments to $225 on the 1st and 15th of each month. I was still grateful for his contribution and never argued the changes. He rarely sees or speaks to her but she recognizes his voice and face. At his request, in the past 2 years, I have let her spend the night with him 2 or 3 times at his parents house (about 20 minutes away from mine) when he visited. Each time she grew upset when she had to leave with him and she did not want to go. I had to force her to go. Recently I allowed him to take her out of state, for the first time, to where he lives for a few days. Naturally she was sad and when I spoke to her on the phone she began to cry. Her father grew upset and threatened not to let me speak to her until he brought her home to me. I then decided (silently) that I would not let her spend the night with him or visit without my supervision until she was old enough to better communicate (read, write and use a telephone) and understand the situation. I made this decision with our daughters safety, happiness and well being in mind. When I explained the changes to him he threatened to take me to court and immediately logged on to his online banking and stopped his automatic payments for financial support. I did not argue. I am currently living in Georgia where our child was born but I will be moving to my home state Florida before the end of this year. I rather not be bothered with a legal fight to explain how I've chosen to protect our daughter. What are my rights a single mother? Please help.