My daughter is almost 3. Her father lived with us until she was 2 and when we separated he moved into the apartment complex next door. When he moved out he refused to visit her for 6 weeks, then came to see her twice, then refused visitation for 8 weeks, came back to see her three times and now has refused to visit for the past 5 months. When he first left my daughter was very hurt and confused and acted out as a result. She has now stopped sitting at the window "waiting for her daddy to come see her". We go to court in September to finalize the child support case (if he shows up for court). He was served the papers so the child support petition will go through whether he is there or not. Part of the agreement is a standard visitation order. What are my rights to terminate this visitation order if he continues to refuse to visit our daughter? The coming in and out of her life is not healthy for her and I do not want him to be able to continue this behavior. Can he refuse to visit for years and then try to enforce the original order since it is included in the child support order? Since I can not afford a lawyer, I am going through the Attorney General to establish the child support. We were supposed to go to mediation but he never showed up so they entered an order to go before the court. They told me I had to agree to the standard order if I wanted the judge to sign off on it. Will I be able to discuss my concerns with the Judge when we go to court. This hearing is the Child Support Review Petition Hearing.

Get it signed and your child support order issued, then if he still will ot visit in 6 months or a year, you file to motify the visitation to restrict or deny.

You would have to file a petition to terminate the visitation order and give him an opportunity to respond. You should inform your counsel of your intent to do this if in fact that's what you want. It probably will delay your case but better to lay all of your cards on the table at the get-go. Also keep in mind that, unless you can prove that visitation with her father is not in your daughter's best interests, even if it hasn't been happening on a regular basis, such a petition is not likely to be granted. I believe that you'd have to come up with more than just irregular visits to convince a judge to not let him see his daughter.

Hello lindsay:

Look, he's a jerk... But I'd leave the door open. Things change. People do too.

excon