ditto what many have said here. I have a 13 y/o stepson, been with him since he was 18 months old. His dad is a deadbeat, self employed painter that doesn't file taxes on all his income. He is $7k behind on child support, spent a night in jail 6 months ago because of it. For the last 4 years, he has worked on the kid to come live with him in Robert, La because there are too many blacks where we live in Laplace. A year and a half ago, he called Child Services on us cuz the boy had a scratch on his arm where he argued with his mother about a video game and she put him in his place. He had the Tangi Sheriff's Office keep us away from the boy for 6 weeks until we got a court order to return the boy and cease and desist. That crap cost us $5k that we didn't have. It's tough, but it's starting to turn now. He is starting to see what a POS his step mother is, and the end of summer this year we didn't have the "I wanna go live with my dad" **** that we've dealt with the last 4 years.
Actually, the last 2 weekends that he was at his dad's, he called us and wanted to come home a day or so early.
His father had it in his head this false idea that at 13 a kid can decide which parent he wants to live with. It's BS, on the law books, where the kid wants to live is the lowest thing the court will consider when deciding the domicile of a child, because the courts know that a kid can be influenced by gifts and such.
Sorry, this turned into more of a vent than advice.
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