Parental Responsibility

[granbyproxy]

Bear with me this is a long one :-( My son has custody and a residency order for his 9 month old son. The mother had the baby removed from her care when she walked out of a mother and baby placement she had been sent to because she hurt the baby shortly after he was born . A child arrangement order was put in place giving the mother 3 hours of supervised contact with the baby per week. She is not allowed to see him anywhere other than a family centre under the supervision of my son. She pays no maintenance and my son has come out of work and onto benefits ( which he hates but has no choice). The mother uses the contact sessions as an opportunity to threaten my son ( she has said she prefers the baby to be asleep at contact so she "doesn't have to think about him and his needs" ) My son has called me from contact today in a very distressed state as the mother has told him the courts are stupid and wrong and that she is going back to court to have my grandson removed from my son and put into care so that she can see him more often and have him overnight and for holidays. She has unlimited funds to pursue this thanks to family members. IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO PLEASE

She will be laughed at and thrown out I would expect. Maybe ask the contact centre if they have cctv? She sounds unhinged and def doesn't want the best for her dc.

he needs to take someone else with him to the contact sessions to support him - she sounds very nasty. She may have all the money in the world but the fact she has previously hurt the baby and walked out of the placement isn't going to be easy to rectify.

I can't see that the courts would put a baby in care and away from a stable parent, I've never seen that happen.

Honestly, it sounds like idle unhinged threats. Short term, your son shouldn't go on his own as she's bullying him terribly and he needs a witness to her behaviour. Then wait and see if the court action materialises at all.

Thank you . She is a bully and my son is very scared of doing anything that might upset her. He does believe that he is doing the best for the baby trying to maintain a relationship with his mother but its the cost to my son's health and wellbeing that worries me as well as the thought , however remote , that the baby would be removed from my son . We will take your advise on board though . Thank you

ideally gran, if you have a family friend, someone that's not you that could go with him, it'll be more helpful to have a non-relative or another person that's witnessed her behaviour if you get to the stage where you're signing affidavits.

Your son should be keeping a record of these contact meetings and the things she has said each time.