Your concern for daughter justified

Dear Annie: I have been married for five years to a wonderful man. When we first began dating, he had custody of his then 2-year-old daughter. Her biological mother, “Jessie,” wanted nothing to do with her.

Jessie does not have a good relationship history. At 14, she gave birth to her first child. She married my husband when she was 20 and then gave birth to his daughter and divorced him within the year. My husband got custody because Jessie did all kinds of dangerous things during her pregnancy.

Three years ago, her then-husband encouraged her to reconnect with her daughter and she came back into our lives. She is now divorced and dating a man she met on the Internet who lives 100 miles away.

The problem is, she wants to take our daughter to his house when she has visitation. Jessie and our daughter recently spent the day there, and we discovered that the kids were left with the other adults while Jessie and her boyfriend went out.

I have been told that Jessie has various “friends” living with her at different times. Does my husband have reason for concern, and if so, what are our legal options? I fear for our daughter’s safety, but we do not have the money to keep hiring lawyers. – Worried in Ohio

Dear Worried: You have plenty of reason for concern. Jessie is leaving her daughter with questionable people under questionable circumstances. Is there a custody agreement in place, allowing Jessie to have unsupervised visits? If not, we urge you to push for supervised visitation for Jessie and to get the details in writing, even if it means hiring one more lawyer. Your daughter is worth it. You or your husband can also contact the National Center for Men (nationalcenter formen.org) for additional support and suggestions.