The matter of y2k presents a legal and moral delemma for G.I. non custodial parents that are concerned for the safety of their kids if y2k should start to move to the 10 scale. Especially if the x-spouse and their family are major D.G.I.'s (dont get its), which is the case for my x and her family. I have tried to talk to them, but they wont acknoledge that y2k is anything to be concerned about. My concern is that I will not be able to evacuate my kid out of the city in time which I am in with out a big hassel. Until it is very dangerously late into the riot stage which will make the journey more dangerous if not impossible because of marial law blocking the exists or heavly armed street gangs with bad attitudes.

If you are a lawyer visiting this site or a non-custodial parent who has worked on resolving this critical y2k safety issue please share your words of wisdom with me and others. What actions can a G.I. non custodial parent can take in advance to make provisions in child custodity orders to give maximum flexiblity if y2k starts to present the appearence of a life safety matter.

We can only give it our best educational guess as what events as they begin to unfold may present a case of deminishing returns. If I guess wrong and evacuate my kid against my x's wishes early based on my knowledge of y2k and it turns out that things are more resilient than I though it could be a rather sticky legal issue, On the other hand if I don't act quickly as events unfold it can present a real life safety issue to deal with it after it blows up into a full scale disaster. Y2k presents a real challege in this matter. Your thoughs please. y2k aware mike.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), June 12, 1999

Answers

Can you get custody over the holidays just prior to y2k? Do you have rigid custody times, or is your ex flexible? Have you considered evacuating your ex and family WITH you, if necessary?

-- Helen (sstaten@fullnet.net), June 12, 1999.

In My preparations of food an water I have made alloances for extra people including my X and her family if I can convince them to go,I pray that I'll be able to get them to go. But they are in heavy denial like just everybody else about the severe implications of y2k, and my concern is that they wont be convinced until it is very late in the social unrest stage.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), June 13, 1999.

Mike, I'm sorry you're having this worry on top of all the others.

-- Helen (sstaten@fullnet.net), June 13, 1999.

I'm sorry too Mike. My Stepson has us concerned as well. He's almost 18, thinks we're really overreacting and has recently joined the NG. If he was much younger....we'd probably do something that an attorney would consider stupid. If TS doesn't HTF....we could always plea temporary insanity, right? HAHAHOOO. Sorry, there's just no easy answers. If faced with the beast, and your holding a small hand, where does the priority lie? I think you know.....but are hoping not to go there.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), June 13, 1999.

Y2K aware Mike, we all know that the Government, including the Child Support Recovery Service will go down for sure in 2000. So as of right now you can stop worrying about the Recovery Service.

Take the child support payments and start buying bulk Y2K foods with it and drop it off at your son's house once a month until Y2K. Just ignore your ex's complaints. Your son's safety is more important than your ex's complaints.

If the Recovery Service gets after you, simply do not show up for Court. They will continue to serve you, but will not arrest you, because it is a Civil matter. According to my brother who is an Attorney, a Court Summons is merely an invitation to show up and nothing more. I have received numerous Summonses from the Recovery Service and have never showed up.

Every time I get one I promise the guy that I will show up, but don't. There was even a Warrant for my arrest, which was handed to me at my front door by a Cop and he gave the warrant to me and said "the Judge wants to see you. And I said OK." I did not show up and that was in 1994. I got a traffic ticked a coupkle of years ago, and the cop said nothing about an arrest warrant. With Civil matters they will not arrest you. They finally got tired of chasing me. Don't get me wrong, I have paid child support, but they were after me for arrearages for when I was unemployed.

-- smitty (smitty@sandiego.com), June 13, 1999.

Mike,

Don't feel that you are alone cause you are'nt. I live in Missouri and my son lives with his mother in Oregon. She is the all time champ on DGI.

-- SgtSchultz (SgtHansSchultz@Stalag13.com), June 13, 1999.

ooops are'nt= not

-- SgtSchultz (SgtHansSchultz@Stalag13.com), June 13, 1999.

Mike,

Why not just make their welfare part of your contingency plans? They may not get it right now, since there is no serious official policy to put that message across. However, a few months down the road, and they will get it, along with millions of others. If you have the place and plans ready, they will be very happy to jump over to your side. Remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. But, if that horse gets "thirsty" it dives right in. Just be ready for that, and trust in your own preparation for now. And if you are lucky, they will even appreciate that you were planning for the future, even when they were not.

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), June 13, 1999.

I would add that you should not get angry at them - even though their DGI status may look like it is putting your child at risk. Anger will only harden their position and make it very unlikely you would get access to your child around the holidays. Might even be better to drop the subject altogether for the time being (while continuing to make your plans). That way as time goes on and the *regular* media picks up on the story, they will be free to rethink their DGI position, and hopefully contact you for information and advice, since they already know you are interested in it.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), June 13, 1999.

Linda's statement is very wise, and says it better than I did.

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), June 13, 1999.

Thanks for the Input, I will continue on with my preperations at full speed until event day. I have made room in my preps to help out my X and her family to, I just hope if it becomes nessary to do option c she will not be slow in realizing the gravity of the y2k situation. I only want whats best for all parties concerned. However I am convinced that I will have to do what's best for my kid even if it is unpopular. In my study of WWII those who recognized the danger as society was unraveling and acted early are the ones who made it out alive. My prayer is that we should never have to experience that type of tradegy but if we do that, God gives us the Courage,Endurance,Wisdom,and strengh to persevere through what ever trials we may face from the y2k experience. Thanks again for your words of wisdom God bless all of you.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation. com), June 13, 1999.

I also agree with Linda's position, but want to emphasize getting regular visitation during and just after the first of the year. I strongly suggest NOT angering the authorities, because you could end up losing visitation rights. Document, document everything...especially any visitation or lack thereof. Stay on as good terms as possible with your ex-...which I know can be difficult (based on my personal experience of having two exs--- and 15 years of custody battles!).

Also I suggest that you learn as much as possible about visitation and custody law in your state. There is a wide state variance... Don't count on the law going away...if it's only a 9, the law may still be there in a year...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), June 14, 1999.

I have custody of my youngest, but have two older that live with their DGI mother... but I set up two years ago where I take them on the day after Christmas, and keep them till the day before school starts up... hey, she likes to party New Years, doesn't have to pay for a sitter..... Do the same, if things start going into the deep doo-doo catagory, you have them with you already, law enforcement is going to have too much crap on their plates to worry that some guy keeping his kids over a "few" days extra... things stay around a 2 or 3, well, your car broke down... whoops..

-- Carl (slowlygi@stubborn.com), June 14, 1999.