Family Rights Group | Parents’ Forum

My ex applied to family court for 3 order parental responsibility,contact order & a specific issues order as he is wanting my surname removed and his there instead and he is wanting our daughters religion removed or atleast not practiced.

We live in different countries and he stopped visits when she was 2 weeks old and went through solicitors for this I have always agreed to contact however he feels it should not be supervised or atleast his paternal family should supervise but due to safeguarding issues and concerns it’s a must

Anyway the judge has ordered we both appear as he has said my ex needs a reality check and we are doing a court day of mediation however I’m unsure what this entails has anyone experienced this?

I am agreeing to all the orders except name change and he is requesting to have our daughter next Christmas for a week long however he has not yet seen our daughter for more than an 1 hour so would this be approved? keep in mind by Christmas she will only be 15 months,I have offered him 50/50 holidays so half day each until she’s at an age she can communicate and then I would be comfortable with us taking turns each year

With him having parental responsibility me as the resident parent if he randomly pops up and wants to see our daughter or if he wants a visit to be somewhere particular like his country can I say yes or no or even set certain rules or will his parental responsibility order stop that

Dear Nichola101

Welcome to the parents' discussion forum and thank you for posting. h

My name is Suzie, online adviser at Family Rights Group, and I will respond to your post. I see that you are currently involved in court proceedings with the father of you daughter as he has made applications to the court for three different orders. The case that you are both involved in is private law proceedings which do not fall within the remit of our service, but I will try to give you some help in respect of the points you have raised in your post. You should, however, obtain legal advice

Regarding the change of name on your George's birth certificate as well as a religion, it will before both you and your daughter's father to put your reasons to the judge or requesting and opposing both. Have you considered whether she could have both of your surnames it is obviously that is a matter for you to decide.

Your daughter is still very young so for her father to want on supervised contact in a different country to where she lives may be a little too much for her as at this time, she may not a close bond with him now. You mentioned that there are safeguarding concerns around his family supervising the contact and it will be for you to provide the evidence in support of your concerns to the court and the judge consider what is in your daughter's best interest. It is important that you both understand that the judge will consider your daughters welfare as paramount when his or her decisions

Regarding the mediation at quart, I believe this will involve you both speaking with a CAFCASS officer to see if you can both reach agreement trump to a compromise on the match is on which you do not agree. If agreement can be reached, then this would mean that the court could make an order by consent and further hearings may not be necessary.

If you and the father cannot reach agreement about contact but then the court will consider, both your views and any other relevant information that is provided to the court. The judge can make an order stipulating the level of contact, how and where that contact will take place. The judge can also say how contact is phased to ensure it is at your daughter’s pace and meet her needs.

Contact is the child’s right and for his or her benefit not the parent/parents. It is considered important for a child to maintain his or her relationship with both parents if in that child’s best interests.

As the resident parent you would make decisions about your daughter's day-to-day care and my father would not simply be able to turn up and say when he wants to have contact especially if there is already an order in place for his contact. If in the future, you both wanted to make changes to an order you could do that between yourselves or apply to the court to vary the terms of the order. The father having parental responsibility would not mean that you cannot say no to request Or has boundaries relating to contact.

You do not mention in your post whether you have a solicitor representing you but if you do not you may be able to obtain some assistance from Child Law Advice on 0300 330 5480 thanks stop they offer advice in respect of private law proceedings. If you are representing yourself, you may find it helpful to obtain information from this website Advice Now. I have provided a link HERE

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie