Ex-wife Has Left Her 8yo Daughter Behind (nyc)
My ex wife’s 8yo daughter has been “left” behind. My kids that I share with my wife are 2F, 2F. Ex-wife was fired from her job for drinking on the job in April 2022. About a month after the twins were born. We separated shortly after that. Our divorce was finalized last year. Right now, we’re supposed to have a 2-2-3 custody plan but this is only on paper. She flakes on her time all the time. I have my kids probably 80% of the time.
Another challenge is that she has left her 8yo daughter here. I don’t really know what to do about that. Her father is not around and not active. She can live here permanently; that’s not an issue. The challenge is my ex-wife refuses to consent to a guardianship and it seems that she has to be the one to file the petition. I’ve been asking her to do this since it became clear that she was not coming back for this kid but she refuses. She has signed a temporary power of attorney that lasted a Year and that will end next month. I’ve asked her to consider renewing it and she’s dragging her feet. I’m not really sure what to do. I don’t have any legal rights to the kid and while I haven’t had a problem with school thus far, if there’s a medical concern or something I don’t think I’d be able to make decisions for her.
My parents think absent a guardianship or temporary custody I need to pretty much “give” the kid to OCFS but that seems pretty harsh and unnecessary. If she goes into care in NYC she’s almost certainly going to get passed from predator to predator. I’ve thought about reaching out to my ex’s mother, who lives in California, but she doesn’t have much of a relationship with her. My ex-wife left California when she was 18 and pretty much never looked back. At any rate, while I haven’t asked her directly, it seems that the 8yo’s preference is to stay here.
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