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I have a question concerning temporary guardianship.. my niece contacted me and asked if i could take her two year old due to her not being able to care for her. how do i go about obtaining guardianship for her. I have been approved to foster/adopt. any advice would be glady appreciated. Thanks in advance :cheer:
I googled "temporary guardianship" and came up with several sites. I would google that and your state and see what you come up with.
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So you just want to be a guardian? We've got some friends going through this. They've been guardians of their nephew for about 4 years now. His bio parents keep dropping in and out of his life, demanding that his current family drop everything and make time for him to visit them. He goes through all kinds of erratic behaviors and regresses on issues every time. It's sooo not a good thing for him. They keep saying that they wish they'd just adopted him years ago so that they could tell his parents that they can't see him until they are clean, sober, and stable. They think his whole life would be different and he wouldn't be struggling like he currently is. As a guardian their rights could be challenged at any time until he's 18 and he could end up back with his parents. Not a good place situation at all. They, too, thought it would be temporary and just wanted to help.
Jess
She has 5 children ages 5-1 and she only 23 years old. I'm gonna wait and she if she's able to get back on her feet if not I will take another route. I just wanna give ger a chance first. all this is new to me and I myself have no children therefore I'm looking for advice on how to handle the sistuation.. we reside in the state of florida.
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Definitely find a lawyer and get a legal guardianship drawn up. Then the child can legally be on your insurance, your taxes, and your social security. It it is temporary guardianship, you are almost nothing but a babysitter -- the bioparent can come back and reverse the guardianship at any time -- on a whim, or in anger if you refuse to loan them money for example. It is wonderful that you would consider taking the child, but don't set yourselves up for emotional blackmail.
It is wonderful that you are a caring and helpful person. It is perfect that you are already licensed. Given that, you'll understand why I say that when I read, "I just wanna give her (my sister, the mother) a chance," though, I stumble a little. Taking temporary guardianship is similar to the responsibility the state takes on when it takes legal custody of a child. Taking on a child--foster or not--requires commitment to the child...you need to be ready to put the child's needs and best interest ahead of any consideration for your sister. The child needs parenting and the child won't stop growing up while the mother gets herself together (or doesn't). There may come a time when what the child needs is for someone to say "no" to your sister; you need to be able to do that, IMO, to be a safe guardian for the 2-y.o.
OTOH, many things come in time and sometimes life needs to you to just jump in and sort it out later. When our fd/niece was 2, her mother asked to send her to me. We squirreled around talking about how it would be arranged until it was too late and the chance was gone. The next year she was in fc. The next year she was RU. The next year, fc again and finally to us at age 5...having her here those three years would have made a tremendous difference in quality of life and family life for all of us....
I'm afraid that if i told her no then my niece would be neglected. they have already been in the hands of DCF. she recently completed her parenting classes to obtain them back. now she has no job with 5 children. and I think they were in care before for neglect. so she called and ask if we could take them this time before it got to that point. she called this friday so all the coutrs and things were closed. I took the youngest of her daughters.. and the others are spreaded out amongst family. this is all new to me.. I just want to provide my niece a stable home with love and security.. what if she doesnt want to give up her rights to her what am i to do then ? I just want whats best for her and the children.
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I have some varied experience with this. We had our niece living with us for one year (voluntarily) and had papers drawn up by an attorney. That wasn't enough for our insurance company. They required a court order, so you might want to check into that.
Also, the little girl we are currently fostering, with hopes of adoption, was once in the care of friends of ours in a similar situation - she stayed with them to avoid being placed in the system. In hindsight our friends wish they would have been more specific about the arrangement before they agreed to care for her. So, you might want to draw up some plans about visits, finances (is the mom going to pay for anything), and under what conditions the children will go back.
Good luck!
she doesnt have any money to pay for support for her children. I had drawn up some papers and was gonna have them notarized stating the arrangements. tomorrow im gonna call the court house to see what steps i need to take. and also maybe contacting legal aide as well . she has been applying for jobs just waiting for them to give her a call. I just wanna do what's best without getting hurt in the process.
I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I didn't mean say "no" to taking the children, I meant being able to say "no" to protect them, later, if necessary, from her. You are in a tough spot no matter what. I hope things work themselves out as the child gets situated with you.