Is This Neglect/abuse? Concerned For Daughter While She Is With Her Dad
Location: Florida.
My daughter is 12 years old. We have a timesharing agreement for her to be with me for school year and dad for summer. He has never been very involved or tried for a good relationship with her. Things were ok between them for a few years when he was still with his ex girlfriend because she and the girlfriend were close. I only mean things were “ok” as in not a lot of bad things between daughter and dad; however, she did have to listen to him and his girlfriend scream and cuss at each other almost daily. Very toxic environment. He barely tries at all with our daughter anymore since his break up. Last summer, he kept telling her he would be picking her up the next weekend for their summer timesharing, and he literally put it off all summer until summer ended- with her never going to see him, but him always rescheduling a time to pick her up that he never followed through with.
This year she is there, but it’s going very poorly. He works five days a week, 12 hour shifts. She is left home alone while he works. There are not exact laws regarding how long a child can be left alone and what age, which makes this a hard argument. However, she doesn’t care for herself well enough to be alone all day most days. She always needs reminded to brush her teeth and to drink water. She doesn’t cook much and he doesn’t prepare food for her on those days, so five days a week she just lives on cereal, donuts, Nutella, chips, etc. Even on his days off, they eat mostly fast food. She says that he wouldn’t let her eat cereal for breakfast because she needs to eat healthier, but he also doesn’t prepare healthy food for her. So she eats some fruit but is still just hungry.
He goes out with his friends frequently. He works from around 10am to 10pm, then frequently goes out with friends after work before coming home to our daughter. She has called me twice now crying because it was midnight and he still wasn’t home. The first time this happened, he asked her if she was ok with him going out for a bit after work and told her he would be home around 10:30-11. She called me crying at nearly 1am because he still wasn’t home. Last night, she called me crying at midnight because he was still not home. This time, he didn’t say anything to her about going out after work. She just didn’t hear from him at all. While im on the phone, he comes home and I can hear him tell her that if she wanted him home, she should have called. “You have a phone, use it” he said. He was yelling at her to finish the dishes (its midnight), she went to her room and locked the door crying because it was late and he was yelling at her, and I hear him yelling at her to open the f*** door or he will break it down. I stayed on the phone until things calmed down.
His friends and him are always talking about inappropriate things, like how drunk they got a certain night, or sexual encounters. It makes her very uncomfortable. He always is hanging out with friends. He doesn’t do much with her during their timesharing. The only thing they’ve done together without friends involved was go see an R rated horror movie at 11pm one night.
When he’s home, it’s toxic. She says he doesnt even like her. He makes fun of her interests and makes fun of her when she cries (usually in front of his friends, embarrassing her even further). But most of the time, he’s not home, and I feel like it’s neglect. But with the laws on it so vague, I don’t know my rights. It’s legally his time with her, but I feel he is neglecting her and causing psychological damage. What can I legally do, keeping in mind that I cannot afford an attorney right now?
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