Im in a serious pickle… Any advice?
Ok.. So here is the deal...
I was dating this girl on and off for a couple of years. Within the last 7 months, the relationship was long distance. I was going to see her once a month. She had assured me that she was on Birth Control. She told me in May that she was pregnant. I decided to move out to be with her and help her through the pregnancy. What I did not know was that she was binge drinking behind my back after finding out she was "pregnant" and continued to do so. When I moved out there to be with her, I started noticing her behavior was extremely inconsistent and that my beer was disappearing from the fridge. I also found her asking me regularly for permission to drink a beer. I told her that one glass of wine or one beer seldomly was not a problem. However, if I left the house or went outside for something, I would come back and notice more and more beer gone and her behavior becoming increasingly violent. I would also notice that upon waking up on saturday mornings she had already been awake for quite some time and was completely intoxicated. There would be 7-8 beer cans on her computer desk and she could not sit up straight, or even complete a rational sentence for that matter. One saturday morning, my mother had called me to see how I was doing. Unfortunately, she happened to pick my phone while I was in the shower. She was completely intoxicated, fighting, and cursing at my mother. I had no idea that my mother had called until she came into to town to visit a week and a half later and told me the details of the phone conversation and that she was completely intoxicated while yelling at my mother. After meeting with my mother and hearing the details, I had went home and spoke to my girlfriend. I was so furious with her that I just completely let her have it for speaking to my mother like that while being intoxicated and showing her that level of disrespect. I had also ripped into her about her constant binge drinking and what self respecting mother would binge drink like that during a pregnancy! I had told her that I didnt appreciate the level of disrespect she was showing my family, myself, and herself for that matter. I told her that I did not want to be a part of such a volatile relationship. Especially one where a mother would constantly argue with me about her drinking being ok while pregnant. I told her that if she wanted to continue her lifestyle, she would have to continue it alone; because I wanted NO part of a lifestyle like that. With that being said, a few days later; I packed up everything that I brought with me and left while she was at work. Please note, that I did not say anything about this or leave any kind of note upon leaving her and going back home.
Since then, she continues to call me and send me text messages on a daily basis. Most of them are late at night and I suspect that she has been drinking. I have decided to keep these messages by sending them to my laptop via a sound recording software. She has mentioned that she intends to sue me for child support. Is there anything I can do to help my case? Or possibly avoid payment of child support? Would it be possible to sue her for custody of the child if I present this evidence to the court and after a positive paternity test?
Please note that she never showed me proof of a positive pregnancy test, or proof of any prenatal check ups.
What do you suggest I do in this case? Am I totally screwed?
Any information would be greatly helpful!
Thank you,
Chris
Tagged with: 7 months • beer cans • binge drinking • birth control • computer desk • disrespect • fridge • girlfriend • glass of wine • long distance • one saturday • phone conversation • pregnancy • relationship • saturday morning • saturday mornings • seldomly
Filed under: DNA Tests
DNA is the only answer in this situation. Do it as soon as possible.
to long…?
The old saying goes "You play, you pay."
Wait things out and see what happens. Getting a good lawyer would be a very smart move on your part.
Keep the messages as you are doing. If she sues you have enough evidence to prove she is a hazard to your child – if the dna test says it is your baby.
I would not be a part of a family with her in it. But I would get my baby. And if she does deliver a baby and it is not mine I would still turn the evidence over to the child protection agency. No baby needs to be reared in a atmosphere like that. Do it man.
heres what i would do. contact an attorney and tell him everything. in the meantime, set yoru ex up. text your ex back and get her to admit drinking while pregnant and other rididulous behavior. tell attorney that you want custody of child because your afraid for childs safety and well being while with mother, as shes already causing potential harm while baby is in utero. the attorney will take it from there.
I’ve been thinking about your case some more and I’ve decided to totally reword my answer to you.
I suspect that she isn’t really pregnant. I think that you should tell her right away that she has to send you proof from a doctor showing that she is, in fact, pregnant; tell her that she will also have to show you proof that you are the father by getting a dna test. If she isn’t really pregnant and is saying this either to upset you, or to try and get some money out of you, then she will either not respond to these requests at all or she will try to make up some excuse to get out of having to do this.
Go see her a few months from now, don’t let her know you are coming to see her, and see if she looks pregnant. If she doesn’t, then she was lying.
You also need to think about whether or not you would want to take the child and fight for custody of the child. I think that a person has to really want a child and not just take the child in order to protect the child. I sympathize with you, as you did not intend to create this child, this woman told you she was using birth control and had no intentions of getting pregnant, and she probably was lying to you about this since she obviously did not use birth control. This also indicates to me that she is lying about being pregnant to try and get money from you using her false pregnancy as an excuse to do this. If you really don’t want a child, can’t afford to raise a child, then you can at least be pretty sure that if she is in fact pregnant and does in fact give birth to the child, that this child will be taken away from her because she is an alcoholic and abusive and not a fit mother. This will have to be proven, however, and you can help to bring this to the attention of authorities and organizations who work on this sort of thing. If the doctors find a lot of alcohol in her blood and can find that the baby is not healthy due to the alcohol she consumed, then I agree with the other answerer that they could take the baby away from her.
You need to be more careful about who you decide to get involved with in the future. Get to know the woman for awhile first before having sex with her. (Or don’t have sex with a woman unless you are married to her, which is what I believe in, and don’t jump into marriage too soon.)
Okay, so. Let’s say she is really pregnant. You are involved with this situation in order to protect that unborn child and that child’s future health and safety. This woman is obviously completely insane and probably evil. She is endangering her unborn child by drinking alcohol and doesn’t seem to care anything about this, or about you. So, first decide do you want to obtain custody of this child. If you do, ask a lawyer how would you go about doing this, and he/she will advise you. It will involve having to go to court and fight for custody, and would be rather emotionally draining, but keep in mind the whole time that you are protecting this child and that you are doing a good deed, and that will help you with any emotions you may experience during this ordeal.
If you don’t want the child, however, then ask the lawyer do you have to pay child support, since you are not married to this woman, since she lied to you about using birth control, since she is an unfit mother and insane. Only a lawyer can tell you for sure if you will have to pay child support or not. There may be some legal loopholes concerning this under certain types of circumstances. Also, if she is proven to be an unfit mother, by the doctors and through court actions (which you will have to participate in), and if you don’t want custody of the child, then the authorities will take the child from her and put it into a foster home. So, once the child is in a foster home, the question is, do you have to pay child support, since the child isn’t even with the mother? Wouldn’t the foster parents, or the orphanage (if there are no foster parents available yet), be the ones supporting the child financially, and why would you have to have any more involvement with the child or its support? Ask a lawyer about this, also.
So, then, the first question would be, should you see a lawyer now, or wait to see a lawyer when it has been proven that she is pregnant, intends to keep the child, and it has been proven that you are in fact the father? This is your choice. Seeing a lawyer now might help you emotionally and clarify for you a lot of things, so if you can afford to consult a lawyer now, I’d recommend that you do it, even if you think she’s lying about everything. It will really ease your mind and calm you emotionally if you can get the proper information directly from a lawyer who is very familiar with these types of issues, and then you will definitely know what types of actions to take concerning this situation, rather than just relying on people from the Internet to try and advise you. Even if someone has been through something similar to what you are going through and can advise you on it, every case is different and the way someone else handled it might not be the wisest way for you to handle it. So I think a lawyer is needed to clarify things for you. You could consult with several lawyers before deciding on the best lawyer. I think some offer free initial consultations.
You are feeling stressed and emotional because of this situation, and when someone is feeling so stressed, it is hard for them to figure out what to do. Emotions can make us feel unclear and undecided. That is why you have submitted your question to Yahoo Answers. We are not directly involved and so we can logically and unemotionally assess your situation and help you to figure things out a bit. Then, after reading all of our answers, you can feel a bit more calm and clear before going to the lawyer.
You need to heal your anger towards this woman. Feeling angry does you no good and keeps you feeling unclear and depressed. I can understand your initial anger at her, but don’t hold onto these emotions as this will pull you down and does no good at this point.
If you are feeling any guilt about any of this, realize that you are not to blame, she is. You made the mistake of getting too involved with this crazy nasty woman, and having sex with her; but realize that sometimes it is very hard to know what a person is really like unless you are living with them and that anyone could have made this mistake. You also had no intentions of having a child or getting married, and this woman told you she didn’t either and that she was using birth control. If you decide you don’t want this child, I don’t think that is sinful for you to decide that.
If you are religious at all, you could pray to God that this child will be taken away from this woman and put with really good adoptive parents and in the meantime put with decent and loving foster parents until the child can get adopted by good parents. Or, if you want the child, fight to get it.
I don’t think you can stop the mother from drinking or change her abusive behaviors, and I think you should keep as much distance from her as possible.
I believe that everything we go through in life has some sort of lesson within it that we are meant to learn, or some sort of spiritual test. You will need to learn something from all of this. Find out what it is and you will have grown and be better off for having gone through it. Don’t just see it as a horrible thing you have to go through. See it as a growth experience that you are gradually progressing with and that you are becoming a stronger, better person as a result of dealing with this situation.
I feel really sorry for you. I will pray for you that this all gets resolved, that the child is protected, that you are protected and divinely guided to do the best thing.
Get a lawyer. Make her show you a positive test. Tell her family she’s drinking while pregnant, do whatever you have to to make sure that she can’t continue to drink while pregnant or you will have one poor baby on your hands when the child is born. Make sure if she IS pregnant you make it clear that you don not know 100% if it is yours, but that if it is you want to know what you’re rights are in making sure she can’t make the baby a statistic. Keep all proof you can, and when the child is born inform the hospital of her actions so they can test the baby, if it’s positive for drug or alcohol in it’s system, she will be charged and the baby taken away from her. Then request a paternity test, if the baby is yours, hell yes fight for it. No, you can’t just "get out of paying child support" if it is yours another stable man would have to be in the picture and willing to adopt the baby for you to legally be able to sign your rights away, and please don’t tell me you’re the kind of douche bag that would consider that kind of thing.
This girl has some serious problems and her baby may be born an alcoholic. From what you describe she isn’t going to listen to reason, and is trying to drag you down with her.
If I were you I would document all text messages to her and from her, being especially careful what you say. Make sure you advise her to get help with her drinking in your messages. Otherwise I’d have no contact with her. Wait a few months to see if she really is pregnant.If so then it will be a waiting game to see who the father is of that baby.
Stay your course.
WAY TOO LONG
Get a lawyer. Child support enforcement will try to establish paternity and if this was long distance; who knows? keep as much evidence as you can. It sounds like she will screw up enough on her own for the court to award you full custody, but you must document everything. You may end up paying child support temporarily but the courts concern is the "best interest of the child". If you make that best interest with you then you should be ok. It’ll be an emotionally draining and possibly long process, but you must keep at it and show the court you are there for the long haul. If you go in saying you want full custody and you don’t want her around it’ll make you look bad. Go in as if you think the best place for the child is with you and that you think it’s best the child has continuing and regular contact with both parents. If it seems you are trying to "take away" that makes you look selfish and not concerned for their best interest. This is not time to gamble anything without a lawyer. A lawyer can also get a court order for paternity, which makes you look pro-active and concerned.
Good luck.