Dear Amy: When my daughter was three, I divorced her father — in part due to his violent temper. Now at 13 years old, she, too, is afraid of her father’s temper, particularly when he is drinking alcohol. She just revealed to me that on several occasions during her visitation with him she has asked a friend’s parents to pick her up and sleep over at their house out of fear of her father. Apparently, when drinking he has violent arguments with his girlfriend over the phone, and this scares her. I have instructed her that she is to contact me immediately to remove her from the situation.