There Is A Lot Of Animosity Between Myself And My Ex. I Am Worried That He Might Harm The Children To Get Back At Me If He Is Alone With Them. Can I Ask For Supervised Visitation in Florida?

It is possible for your ex to be allowed to be with the children only when he is supervised, but that is not often done. For your ex to be awarded supervised visitation, you must normally make a strong case in court about why the welfare of your children would be endangered by non-supervised visitation and why your ex is a danger to the children.

When a judge does award supervised visitation, normally the visitation only takes in the presence of a visitation monitor, or a person appointed by the court to oversee the interaction between parent and child. This is done so that the child will remain safe during the visit, and will not be subjected to any inappropriate interaction.

A court normally does not want to award supervised visitation. It can be hard for a parent and child to maintain a normal relationship when there is always someone listening and watching. Some cases in which a court may award supervised visitation is if there is a threat of kidnapping, the parent has a history of drug abuse, the parent has a criminal history, there has been a threat of physical, mental or sexual abuse, or if one parent has threatened suicide. A judge may also require the parent to attend parenting classes, anger management classes, and possibly even go to therapy.

Before awarding supervised therapy, a judge will consider what is in the best interests of the child. If the judge feels that normal, unsupervised visitation could endanger the child’s mental or physical health, the judge will typically award supervised visitation only. In very extreme cases, the other parent may not be allowed to see the child at all.