parental rights

[polodriver]

This is a bit complicated but here goes;
My ex husband died leaving a 5 year old girl. Our 21 year old son has won 'custody' of her after fighting his uncle in court for her, which split the family. The uncle backed out, but the court allowed his daughter (my son's cousin) to be a 'fall back' if my son couldn't cope, but my son has full responsibility. We live in Cornwall and they live in London. This only happened a week ago, but the cousin , who didn't want my son to win, has rung up every day to talk to the child, but I have a feeling she is just checking up to see if he is in/out/if she is in bed at the proper time etc, and just waiting to hopefully 'catch him out'. I feel a phone call once a week is more than enough. Any advice please, or am I paranoid?

[VillageVicar]

This is complex. And I�m afraid, without understanding a bit more than you could convey here, you�re not going to receive the most informed answer.

As I see it, this does sound a bit like a test. I�m of two thoughts: Let it go on a bit and pay no mind to it. In time they will become tired of this pedantic behaviour and start to follow a more reasonable pattern. It could also be in the caller�s mind that they�re somehow demonstrating their determined interest in the child�s welfare in the hopes of making another approach to the courts.

In any event, if it were me, and this is the only way I can present this, I would wait a period, ensuring that I keep a log of the calls and times and if it persists, contact the solicitor who acted in the child�s interest, showing how this is becoming invasive rather than supportive of the child�s best interests.

What matters most is the child�s best interest. I�m sure the courts tried to take in to consideration everything before them prior to issuing a decision.

I wish you every success

Fr Bill

[Annlinda]

If he has phone on answerphone he could screen the phone calls and choose whether to allow the cousin to speak to the child or not. Personally I feel that unless the child is unsettled by the calls the other party will soon get fed up with ringing.

[its_me_baby]

think your son needs to ask them not to ring after a certain time as he will be busy cooking her tea, getting her settled and ready for bed. If they do not respect his wishes then screen his calls but they should understand that them ringing all the time is interupting his routines with the little girl. If he screens his calls after a certain time they might get the message that they need to cool off.