Ask Me Help Desk - Regain custody from step son

Ok I have a question for a friend of mine..

She gave custody of her children to her step son and his wife on the grounds that she would still be able to see them on weekends and get them for 2 weeks in the summer.. ( not court ordered)

That was 2 years ago, but last year her step son and his wife took the kids to Georgia to live..
Last week she gets phone call from her step sons wife saying she has until Friday the 3rd to go file for custody of her kids and drive to Georgia to pick them up (she lives in Pennsylvania).. Because they are getting into trouble and they can't handle them anymore if not they were going to turn them over to the state.. ( the kids are 13 and 12 years old) And by trouble I mean stealing from stores and doing drugs) (which they never did while they lived with their mother they did really good in school and went to church.. At the time that she signed the kids over she was in a bad relationship and she was trying to get out of it and she didn't want her kids to get hurt)

So my friend goes and terminates the gaurdenship and she has a court date on the August 7th.. When she called the woman who has the kids she said my friend isn't aloud to pick them up until after the court hearing on the 7th because she wants rights to the kids as well..

My question is can the people who have guardianship over the kids now... Get visitation, or do they have any rights over the kids if they are getting into trouble or doing drugs while they are suppose to be taking care of them?

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Originally Posted by John4567

Ok I have a question for a friend of mine..

She gave custody of her children to her step son and his wife on the grounds that she would still be able to see them on weekends and get them for 2 wks in the summer.. ( not court ordered)

That was 2 years ago, but last year her step son and his wife took the kids to georgia to live..
Last week she gets phone call from her step sons wife saying she has until Friday the 3rd to go file for custody of her kids and drive to Georgia to pick them up (she lives in Pennsylvania).. Because they are getting into trouble and they can't handle them anymore if not they were gonna turn them over to the state.. ( the kids are 13 and 12 years old) And by trouble I mean stealing from stores and doing drugs) (which they never did while they lived with their mother they did really good in school and went to church.. At the time that she signed the kids over she was in a bad relationship and she was trying to get out of it and she didn't want her kids to get hurt)

So my friend goes and terminates the gaurdenship and she has a court date on the august 7th.. When she called the woman who has the kids she said my friend isn't aloud to pick them up until after the court hearing on the 7th because she wants rights to the kids as well..

My question is can the people who have guardianship over the kids now... Get visitation, or do they have any rights over the kids if they are getting into trouble or doing drugs while they are suppose to be taking care of them?

I don't think the Court is going to be sympathetic to either side - the mother "gave custody" of the children two years ago to a step-son and his wife because the mother was trying to get out of a bad relationship. No Court involvement - from what I'm reading. I'm assuming she's still in the relationship or she would have made moves to get them back. That doesn't look good for her.

I'm assuming that the mother has been paying support or else she's REALLY going to look bad.

Now the stepson and his wife are going to "give custody" back to the mother because the kids are in trouble.

People don't hand puppies back and forth like this.

Your friend needs an Attorney. She either terminated the guardianship and the kids are "given" back to her or not. I'm not sure you understand the "termination" part.

What EXACTLY is the situation?

There are a few holes in this situation. I suspect because you weren't told the full story or didn't know the questions to ask. But we need clarification on a few points.

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gave custody of her children... be able to see them on weekends and get them for 2 weeks in the summer.. ( not court ordered)

What wasn't court ordered, the visitation or the custody? What really was given? And how was it given?

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So my friend goes and terminates the gaurdenship and she has a court date on the August 7th.

Earlier you said custody, now it s guardianship. Which is it? How did she terminate and what is the 8/7 hearing about?

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he called the woman who has the kids... she wants rights to the kids as well..

My question is can the people who have guardianship over the kids now... Get visitation, or do they have any rights

Who is this woman? How did she get the children? What makes her think she has any rights?

As Judy said, children are objects that can be bounced around. Custody and guardianship can't just be given. So, to help here, we needs to know what has actually happened.

You want to blame step son for the trouble the kids got into ? No, really, let me see a mother will sign over custody, not visit children properly, allow them to move out of state, what do you think those poor kids felt like, that is why the kids were most likely getting into trouble.

In a bad relationship and trying to get out ? Give me a break, so she and the kids all move into step son's for a while and get away from relationship, She stayed in a bad relationship and choose this bad relationship over her kids, That is what I and the court will see.

To be honest it will be lucky if the state will give either one of them the kids.

Never mind she got her kids back and those people don't have any rights to the kids

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Originally Posted by John4567

Never mind she got her kids back and those people dont have any rights to the kids

Thanks for letting us know, but in the future please respond to the original thread instead of starting a new one. I merged your threads for you.