Hello everyone. Following some Christmas dramas, my mother has recently threatened me with “legal action” around access to my son (9yo). I am a single parent with 100% care. My mother has seen my son less than once per year on average throughout his life.
I recently took my son to visit his grandmother for Christmas, however after 1-2 days she became abusive as she has before. We had all been out for a walk together and returned to our hotel room. My son and I were tired and wanted to rest for a bit. My mother said she needed to visit a friend, and could she take my son with her. I said no, he’s a bit tired at the moment. And then she exploded. She started yelling and accused me of confining her access to my son to “a f***ing hotel room”. When she started to yell I asked her to leave. She then left me a few angry voicemails, telling me that if I was going to restrict her “access” to my son to “a f***ing hotel room I may as well f*** off”, and criticising my parenting. A couple of days later she emailed me threatening legal action and accusing me of withholding my son from her, even though I had just driven him four hours to visit her.
I have done some reading about “grandparents rights” and I’m feeling pretty reassured as she has no significant relationship with my son, but I wanted to check in with the brains trust here until my lawyer opens again after the holiday period.
I have facilitated the majority of visits between my son and his grandmother. I have her abusive voicemails and emails from the most recent incident as well as emails documenting her abusive behaviour during their last visit ~18 months ago when she placed my son in a traumatic situation, as well as an email from her at that time requesting that I do not bring my son to her anymore.
My mother is narcissistic and seems to think that she will be able to force me to give her unsupervised overnight care of my son. This is ludicrous due to the physical distance between us, and also the lack of any previous unsupervised time or overnight visits. She now has a new partner with whom she has recently moved in, and has been presenting this to me as evidence of her “stability”, even though she was actually kicked out by him on Christmas day. I helped her move her stuff out then, but they now seem to be back together.
I understand that mediation is a required step before any court action can be taken. If anyone has any tips or guidance about this process I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
I recently took my son to visit his grandmother for Christmas, however after 1-2 days she became abusive as she has before. We had all been out for a walk together and returned to our hotel room. My son and I were tired and wanted to rest for a bit. My mother said she needed to visit a friend, and could she take my son with her. I said no, he’s a bit tired at the moment. And then she exploded. She started yelling and accused me of confining her access to my son to “a f***ing hotel room”. When she started to yell I asked her to leave. She then left me a few angry voicemails, telling me that if I was going to restrict her “access” to my son to “a f***ing hotel room I may as well f*** off”, and criticising my parenting. A couple of days later she emailed me threatening legal action and accusing me of withholding my son from her, even though I had just driven him four hours to visit her.
I have done some reading about “grandparents rights” and I’m feeling pretty reassured as she has no significant relationship with my son, but I wanted to check in with the brains trust here until my lawyer opens again after the holiday period.
I have facilitated the majority of visits between my son and his grandmother. I have her abusive voicemails and emails from the most recent incident as well as emails documenting her abusive behaviour during their last visit ~18 months ago when she placed my son in a traumatic situation, as well as an email from her at that time requesting that I do not bring my son to her anymore.
My mother is narcissistic and seems to think that she will be able to force me to give her unsupervised overnight care of my son. This is ludicrous due to the physical distance between us, and also the lack of any previous unsupervised time or overnight visits. She now has a new partner with whom she has recently moved in, and has been presenting this to me as evidence of her “stability”, even though she was actually kicked out by him on Christmas day. I helped her move her stuff out then, but they now seem to be back together.
I understand that mediation is a required step before any court action can be taken. If anyone has any tips or guidance about this process I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
