My daughters father works out of town for weeks at a time, sometimes months at a time. When he does come in he always tells her all these wonderful fantastic things they’re going to do together and he just doesn’t show up. It disappoints her and she cries about it, it breaks my heart. We had a court order for visitation, but it kind of went out the window when he took the camp job. I’ve tried explaining how much it hurts her, and he apologizes but it happens time and time again.

I need to know if legally I can do anything to remedy this. I don’t think it’s fair or healthy for a 4 year old to have to endure this. She doesn’t understand why he doesn’t follow through, and I’ve caught him in so many lies just about every time he bails out.

Personally my life a lot easier when he’s not around, we have a good routine, we have a loving family, financially we do well without him, no one ever goes without. He does help out financially, not as much as he technically should… but to me it’s never been about the money. It’s been about making sure she has that relationship with her father. Now it seems that having him in and out of the picture is causing her more pain and confusion than anything. I’ve worked very hard to have a positive relationship with him, establishing daily contact between him and his daughter through phone calls and videos, and basically letting him take her anytime he’s able to. It’s at the point now where sometimes she refuses to speak to him… last time when she was supposed to go for a sleepover with him she cried and said she wanted to stay with me and didn’t want to go to his house. He ended up just not showing up anyways, no phone call or anything… so I guess that worked out.

I don’t know what to do. I’m worried about this causing emotional damage. Any suggestions?