Any experience with Grandparents/Aunty&Uncle getting guardianship or custody of child

[Little Gorilla]

This isn't about my child - its about my nephew.

His parents are both off the rails - all family members have tried to help - parents are getting a divorce....without going into too many details...lets just say DUIs, drugs (bad ones, not that any are good...), alcohol abuse ....bruises on the child :mad: ....its tearing me and DPs heart out :gloomy: .

Anyway today was the final straw - while the dad was meant to be looking after his child on saturday night he dumped him with some of his mates and then the dad went out partying....long story short, my nephew ended up ringing his grandmother to come get him at 11:30pm at night ....he is 6 yrs old :crying: .

The grandmother has been documenting everything - phone calls, bad behavior etc etc etc.

So, now I think she wants to take it a step further and get guardianship (i suppose not custody-too extreme at this stage???). Has anyone else been through this or maybe know someone that has....or maybe you work in the legal field and could give me a bit of an idea as to how likely it would be that a grandparent (or even an aunt or uncle) getting guardianship is?

Thanks.

[damien's mum]

I think i might have someone that can help you out, i will give her your username, and get her to pm you, as i don't know if she would appericate me handing out her details!

:fingerscrossed:

[damien's mum]

Ok, i have sent her a msg, and she should get back to you soon!
Keep your chin up in the mean time, you are doing the right thing at the moment, and all that you guys can do. If there is enough proof i would go for custody!

[reAllytee]

Oh my i just burst into tears at the idea of a 6yr old calling his grandma :crying:

How this must be affecting your family i can only imagine !
Im not entirely sure about what you can do as such but im sure there would have to be something hopefully the person DM is talking about can help :hugs:

All i know is that its really difficult for family members to get access to children when there has been a divorce with set custody rights etc. My aunty & uncle havent seen their granddaughter for 12yrs & it breaks their hearts.

Good luck i hope this has a happy ending for all :hugs:

[nemosmum]

Yep this happened to my uncle and Aunty they were awarded custody of their grandkids after their father placed their mum (my cousin) in a mental institution when she suffered a severe breakdown.

The problem was the father kept appealing and eventually got custody of thekids about 3 years ago.................however just this Easter my uncle and Aunty again regained custody.

It can drag out so thats one thing to be careful about.

My sister is actually in the process of seperating from her husband (shes moving out this weekend) and our family is terrified that his family will fight my sis for soul custody (as she too recently suffered a mini breakdown)

We are praying that it wont get ugly BUT these things are never easy,

I would have to say that in your case it doesnt sound like either parent has got it together and this will undoubtly help your case.

Best of luck, hoepfully someone on here can help you out with some legal info

[sam's mum]

My cousin got custody of her grandson. Her daughter has ASD in a bad way and just wasn't looking after the baby properly.

[Little Gorilla]

Ok, i have sent her a msg, and she should get back to you soon!
Keep your chin up in the mean time, you are doing the right thing at the moment, and all that you guys can do. If there is enough proof i would go for custody!

Thanks Damien's mum - it will be good just to get an idea from this other bubhubber as to how it all works.

Its so hard to know what to do in this situation. Obviously the welfare of the child is paramount...however, he still loves his parents and you don't want to alienate him from them....arrrggghhhh its all just so difficult. Plus I've never really dealt with anyone before that has had a drug abuse problem...so i'm a bit baffled in that regard as well.

My little nephew spent last week of the school holidays with me and he was a changed little boy....he made new mates with the kids that lived next door, we did normal kid stuff, going to the park, for swims, singing etc....he changed from this stressed out agro sad little boy to a smiling happy normal 6 year old while I had him. I assume its because he felt safe with me :confused: didn't have to worry about what was going to happen next.

Its one thing seeing strangers treating kids badly...but when its your own blood...well, it just is almost too much to handle.

[cmd'smum]

BG..... Alicia sent me a PM, have PMed you.

If you have any other concerns please let me know. More than happy to help!

:hugs:

All the best.

[Little Gorilla]

BG..... Alicia sent me a PM, have PMed you.

If you have any other concerns please let me know. More than happy to help!

:hugs:

All the best.

Thanks, got it...you and her are jems!!:hugs:

[cenasangel]

Yeah a couple freinds of mine....... we shall call them miss x and mr ****** were in a relationship for a number of months. Miss x was 16 and mr ****** was 26. Anyways miss x found out she was pregnant with mr wankers baby. The day she found out she was pregnant mr ****** took her for a driving lesson in the country. For whatever reason they were in a very serious car accident, leaving miss x and mr ****** both in a coma. This left the hospital and the staff in a very serious dilema as they had a pregnant woman in a coma and a pregnancy that was progressing normaly. They had no idea what condition miss x would be in when she woke up and if she was going to make it at all. With mr ****** being her only next of kin and him not being able to make a decision on her behalf the doctors decided the best option would be to abort.

Mr ****** thankfuly woke from his coma before the procedure was done and consented to letting the pregnancy continue. Miss x apparently was the only woman in Australia at the time to give birth whilst in a coma and this made a legal precident. Miss x wokie up from her coma shortly after the birth and moved in with mr ****** and the baby. Unfortunently the damage to her brain was far worse than expected and she had to return to rehab without the baby. Mr ****** had no idea what to do with a newborn baby and relinquished the baby when she was 6 weeks old but never really had any further contact with her until gr4andparents filed for full custody so they could at least get centerlink benifits to feed her. (they were only on an old age pension at the time and had little money) suffice to say he lost as he copuld not explain his absence for the previous 6 years of her life and is still *****ing about it to this day.

[Veritas]

I do know that if the issues were great enough for DOCS or the relevant state child protection agency to get involved and remove the child, they do like to attempt to keep the child with a family member if appropriate...

Best of luck..

[damien's mum]

Thanks, got it...you and her are jems!!:hugs:

Just wanted to check how things were going..

Linda is a jem isnt she.. DONT STEAL HER, she is mine!! Lol

[Little Gorilla]

Just wanted to check how things were going..

Linda is a jem isnt she.. DONT STEAL HER, she is mine!! Lol

Oh, she is isn't she :yes:

Basically the mum and dad have both been given ultimatums...look after your son properly or that's it...it will go to court...they have one more chance each to clean their act up...MIL is serious this time.

Poor wee thing had to go to his mums today and was in tears...didn't want to leave his grandma...its hard - they are his parents....but all the poor wee thing wants in a safe loving enviroment to be a 6 year old in...frustrating beyond belief.

I'm sure the mum and dad are going to stuff up....I give them each 48 hours.....

[jessgray]

my aunty had a guardinship custody order of me from age 12 to 18 :)
she had to go through the family courts and through DHS to be granted it. as i was under DHS already. and it took 3 months for the courts to approve it and then she had to a short training thing with DHS to prove she woudl be able to handle possible problems i may have from my childhood and her police check took ages to come back.