I have a parenting agreement that was signed in Dec. 2012 which states our son would reside with me, and I have the responsibility of making any final decisions that my ex & I could not agree on in regards to education, non-emergency medical & dental care. Daily decisions are made by the parent whom he is with at the time. In June 2013, at age 13, our son asked to stay with his dad for the coming school year, which is an hour and a half away from me. After much discussion with his dad, I agreed, on the condition that if at any time our son wanted to come back home, he be allowed to do so. We did not have the parenting agreement changed though.
My ex has physicial and mental issues (bi-polar, OCD, schizo-affective disorder) that have kept him from providing the care I think our son needs, and our son, now 14, has now told me he does not want to live there anymore. With the distance involved and school almost being out, my sister has agreed to let him stay with her for the remainder of the school year so he doesn’t have to change schools. My ex will not approve.
I know it seems that he should just stay with his dad until school is out, but in the last month, his dad has been waking him up during the middle of the night for no reason (he’s manic), and he also left his dating profile up on our son’s computer, which he found and learned that his dad is gay. He is very uncomfortable staying there now. He has not told his dad, and doesn’t want to - he’s afraid of how he will react. That was always an issue during our marriage because with bi-polar, you never know what will set him off.
With all that said, my question is, does my ex have any legal right to keep me from moving our son out of his house, and are there any legal documents that need to be filled out allowing my sister temporary guardianship for two months so that my ex will not be able to interfere with his care while our son is there? My ex hates my sister, and will be extremely angry that our son is there. At the beginning of the school year, my ex was in the hospital (psych ward), and our son stayed with my sister for 2 weeks. But the school told us that if his dad came to pick him up, they couldn’t stop him based on the paperwork I had.
Any information will be helpful. Thanks!