My heart is aching and I’m looking for advice from any mama that’s been through something like this. My daughter’s father has her on the weekends and on Friday night he drove her home and dropped her off with me because she was crying and upset that he was throwing up. Turns out it was because he had been drinking. So he got into a car and drove her to my house drunk. All I can think of is all the horrible things that could have gone wrong. And whether he’s driven her after drinking before and I just don’t know about it. She’s too young to really grasp what happened and why it was so dangerous and she isn’t old enough for a phone so I can’t tell her to call me to pick her up if he ever tries drinking and driving again. What can I do legally to protect her? I feel like the court system has been a huge letdown. Several years ago he left bruises on her arm for gripping her too tight out of anger so I called CPS, her and I had interviews with a detective, then when the detective tried contacting him he made excuses and blew off their scheduled interview twice so I was told there’s nothing they can do besides take it to court and require her to testify against him and I didn’t want to put her through that. I feel so helpless to protect my baby. I don’t want to be held in contempt for defying the court order but I can’t afford a lawyer and make too much to qualify for northwestern legal services. What can I do to protect her?
Location: Pennsylvania
Comments
Taking him to court is your only option. You are free to report him to the police or CPS, but in either case your daughter’s testimony would be required to take any action. You can also take him back to court to adjust the custody/visitation based upon this new information.
If your daughter is old enough to possibly testify, she’s probably old enough to have a child friendly cell phone to call you with when he throws up again or when she’s scared.