PA/TN Custody Law Questions

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My husband is the father of 14 year old twins, boy and girl that reside full-time with their full custody Mother in Pennsylvania. My husband is a full-time resident of Tennessee as he has been since 2003. He has partial custody and visitation from the State of PA. Now my question, can their Mother legally allow the twins to fly across many state lines and into Florida for a Christmas break without my husbands approval or further notice to the fact? Yes, there are many hard-ships and hard feelings toward the Father from the children and their Mother, my husbands former wife. My husband was neither asked or notified until 3 days ago, only announced by the son that he and his siter were to be traveling to Florida, after my Husband announced that we were coming to PA for Christmas. My husband has prearranged visitation of the children prior to notifying the Mother, at Christmas, Easter break, birthdays for children and Father and for the respective Mother and Father's Days, as well as summer vacations, by the court. The children are expected to be leaving soon for Florida from the Lehigh Valley area in PA. My husband and myself neither want those kids traveling (their Mother is supposedly not traveling with them) by air, bus or otherwise to Florida because of the environment they will be exposed to at his former wifes family residences. Boy was allowed to run loose from literally daylight to dark on previous visits to Florida where he was playing with baby alligators/crocodilles without an adult anywhere around. What recourse do we have? Also, what are the laws/rules concerning a father wanting to relinquish all rights to his biological minor children? I thank you in advance for whatever you may or can help us with.

Now my question, can their Mother legally allow the twins to fly across many state lines and into Florida for a Christmas break without my husbands approval or further notice to the fact?

Depending on the airlines rules for unaccompanied minors travelling, yes she can. Depending on if this trip is interfering with the father's court ordered Christmas visitation schedule, yes she can.

My husband was neither asked or notified until 3 days ago, only announced by the son that he and his siter were to be traveling to Florida, after my Husband announced that we were coming to PA for Christmas.

Unless the court order states that he is to be notified of any out of state travel by the children, then it's not relevant if he were notified or not. What mom does on her parenting time is her choice, just as what dad does during his parenting time is his choice. Again, if this is his court ordered parenting time that's being interfered with, THEN he would have recourse. Is he travelling to PA as part of his court ordered parenting time?

My husband and myself neither want those kids traveling (their Mother is supposedly not traveling with them) by air, bus or otherwise to Florida because of the environment they will be exposed to at his former wifes family residences. Boy was allowed to run loose from literally daylight to dark on previous visits to Florida where he was playing with baby alligators/crocodilles without an adult anywhere around.

Does the court order say they are not to travel unaccompanied by air, bus or car? If not, you have no recourse. If the boy was allowed to run loose with alligators all day and no one watching him, was this incident such a concern at the time to be reported to the proper authorities?

Also, what are the laws/rules concerning a father wanting to relinquish all rights to his biological minor children?

What? He's concerned about them flying alone and playing with alligators and then wants to relinquish rights? :confused:

Ok to answer your questions. Father has court-ordered visitation starting on Dec 26th. BUT, when he is visiting the Lehigh Valley area, he is to give the Mother advance notice of his visit there, in which he did. The reason for concern over the air travel is that the Mother DID NOT want to allow the son to fly down to TN for a visit by himself this past July 2005 because in her words she "was afraid Terrorists will attack the plane". That is a 10 hour trip up there and 10 hours back, way back when gas was $2.86 a gallon. If Terrorists can attack it while the boy is alone on a plane to TN then they can attack it as well when the boy and girl are on it together heading to Florida. Now for the comment about concern over the baby alligator incident, the boy was SUPPOSED to be watched by the former wifes family and they instead allowed him to run amok at will whenever he felt like it. AND the reason for asking about relinquishing custody of the children is because the Mother has mentioned it to my husband and he is beginning to consider it due to the fact that this woman is a psycho from hell, if you knew her you'd understand.

I deal with a psycho from hell too. I do understand, trust me. ;)

OK, when he is visiting the area and is to give mom notice (which he did) does it specifically say in the order that mom "shall" give dad more parenting time or something along those lines? Notice the word "shall". "Shall" means there's no if's and's or but's about it. If dad is going to be there and lets mom know, and the court order says mom SHALL allow dad time, then he may have recourse. Exactly how much notice is dad required to give to mom? Is that in the order? If you have it handy and can type out exactly what it says, that would help tremendously.

Of course mom didn't want the son to fly alone because of possible terrorists... because it was what DAD wanted. Now that she wants it, terrorists aren't a concern. Don't play that game with her and don't let it become a main focus. The more she's reacted to, the more she will do. Plain and simple. Parents (both male and female) play this game all the time. My ex can't seem to find transportation when it's time for me to have our children and we're supposed to meet halfway and I end up driving 8 hours one way to get them, but yet... when it's time for them to go to him he miraculously finds a way to meet halfway so HE doesn't have to drive 8 hours one way and spend the night in a hotel and 2 days driving like I did. Imagine that?! :eek:

My comment over the alligator incident... I understand that he was supposed to be watched by someone, and I made my first post about it based on that assumption. What I meant by my comment was... was it enough of a concern for dad at the time that he wasn't being watched and did this to contact the proper authorities? Or was it more of an "OMG! I can't believe you let him do that! Don't ever let him do that again!" type-moment. You listed it as a concern, and I was just wanting clarification of how much of a concern it was... if DFS or someone was contacted about the lack of supervision.

Dealing with a PBFH is never a reason to even consider giving up rights to a child, no matter what the other parent may approach you with. Yeah, a lot of us would rather throw our hands up in the air than deal with all the BS, but what exactly does that show the kids? That mom and dad hate each other so much, that the love for the kids can't even overcome it. The love of the kids comes first, no matter how much of a loon the other parent is, no matter how much of PITA they are, no matter how much we hate them. I wouldn't piss on my ex if he was on fire, but my kids don't know that. They know I love them. I only talk to my ex when I HAVE to, otherwise when I call them either they answer the phone and we talk, or I tell whoever does answer to put them on the phone. No dealing with the ex unless it's a medical issue he needs to know of, there's a concern I have, or we're discussing visitation. Honestly, most of the time I talk to his wife, because I'd rather talk to her than him.

A wise person once said, "No one can make you feel inferior unless you let them". Live by those words. He can't control his loony ex's actions or words, but he can control how he reacts to them. If she gets a rise out of him, she's accomplished her goal. Don't allow her to come between the relationship between him and his children, he's half their biology as well and not an inferior. ;)

I do so much appreciate your honesty and candor. As soon as I locate the exact document, I will type it out word for word what it says and again THANK YOU WhyteNoise!! :) Now if I could only find a way of removing the chip from his ex's shoulder, lmao. :D

I do so much appreciate your honesty and candor. As soon as I locate the exact document, I will type it out word for word what it says and again THANK YOU WhyteNoise!! :) Now if I could only find a way of removing the chip from his ex's shoulder, lmao. :D

Hammers work really well as long as they're aimed slightly to the left or right... *ahem* I'm kidding, of course!

Sometimes my honesty and candor comes across as being a tad *****y (OK, a LOT). I don't mean it to, it's just that I'm not one to sugarcoat things.