Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona
My boyfriends child mother is threating to take him to court unless i let her daughter sleep over my house. She said either i must leave my home every weekend so she can stay over or deal with it. i do not want her daughter to stay here right now because she has bi-polar the mother does not think so. My boyfriend and I had her for a year and a half because her mother was doing drugs and her the child was not being taken care of right. I took care of this kid night and day. her mother never got her a shot or took her to the doctors for anything,no dentist or anything else. so I did it. around Christmas that year she stated she hears voices and she was becoming violent so we took her to children's hospital and she was diagnosed with bi-polar so when she was discharged i took her to see a physiologists were she was given medication and therapy. we gave her back to her mother because i was pregnant and was having a hard time taking care of her. She was violent at school and at home. when she started to visit she was stating she wanted to hurt the baby. when he was born she wanted nothing to do with him but she keeped saying she wanted to hurt him. so for his safety and for my older sons sanity(he was diagnosed with anxiety disorder because of all this) i had to tell my boyfriend that he could go see her and that i did not think it was wise to have her around the kids for a while so now after 4 months we are all visiting with her but the mother is insisting on taking us to court if she does not sleep over. She said that i should go spend some time with my mother every weekend pack up my kids and go so he can spend time with his daughter. i said no. SO MY QUESTION IS DOES SHE HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE US TO COURT OF SHE DOES NOT SLEEP OVER, IF I FEEL SHE MAYBE A THREAT TO THE OTHER KIDS, AND IS SHE HAS THE RIGHT TO TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD DO OR NOT DO IN MY HOME?????
1 Answer from Attorneys
No. That is completely ridiculous. She has no power to compel you to do or not do anything in particular in your home. It would be a different story if the court ordered that your boyfriend (her father) was to have visitation, and that it was to include overnight stays at his/your residence. However, that seems like a really unlikely scenario given what you have told me about the girl's (I'm assuming she is still a minor?) behavior and statements. It sounds like she reasonably could be viewed as a valid threat to you and/or one or more of your family members. In fact, you may want to get a protective court order ordering that the child and even her mother leave your family alone. That doesn't mean dad can't go to daughter and spend time with her, but she doesn't have to come to your house or stay overnight at your house.
Make sense? Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.
Good luck!
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