Hi.

[country girl]

Hi all.

I'm new to this so bear with me but that just seems to be things are happening with me. My husband of 8 years left me while I was hospitalized for pre-postpartum depression at 7 1/2 months pregnant. This happened Aug 31st and I've been back to the house once to move most of my stuff out since it's his parents house that we're renting. After the initial shock of him leaving I realized that this will be a good thing for both of us to find ourselves. I was the rebound relationship from his first fiancee leaving and I was his mother not his wife. We still speak about once a week and he wants to be a part of the baby's life but my question is how much do I allow? He has always been horrible for looking after himself (hence why I called myself his mother) so how can he help look after a baby?

Everyone's opinion is wait until the baby is born and he'll change.....

Waiting continuously,
country girl

 

[logicalvelocity]

country girl,

welcome to the forum

If your in Ontario, Both parents are equally entitled to custody of the child. It is the child's right to a meaningful relationship with both parent's. Until an agreement or an order from the court providing otherwise, Both parent's have coextensive custody of the child.

We still speak about once a week and he wants to be a part of the baby's life but my question is how much do I allow?

Neither parent has the right to dictate the terms of the child's access.

I can think of a fairly recent case where the issue centered on the custody of a nine-month-old child. The court rejected the "tender years" doctrine of the mother and awarded interim custody of the nine month old child to the father with the infant child's access to the mother on alternate weekends from Fridays at noon to Mondays at noon.

Szczecina v. Piatek

http://www.canlii.org/on/cas/onsc/2003/2003onsc12842.html

lv