Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Are you married to the father or is he your boyfriend? If you're married, you can come to some type of separation agreement that will give you maintenance and visitation and acknowledge that you aren't abandoning them.

If he's your boyfriend, you can come to a temporary custody agreement with visitation and child support.

If you don't already have a a lawyer, we can have an office meeting in Montgomery County or downtown DC to discuss your options.

Are you proposing leaving the children with their father and going back to get them later? If that's your plan, DON'T! The best way to lose a custody case is to leave your kids behind with the other parent. That would establish a new status quo, and you would be hard pressed to argue that the father was anything other than fit. (If he was unfit, you wouldn't leave the children with him, would you?)

You write that this is a "bad" relationship? In what way? If there is abuse, you may be able to compel him to leave the home.