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Way to go, I too just received custody of my 6 year old. It was a long 8 month battle but he came out on top!!! He has been living with us for a year now and has literally turned his behavior around at school and at home.

You may also go down to your local police station and have them do what is called a "Survey" On the stepfather. If you have his full legal name, give them the name and ask them to do this. It costs around 8 dollars each year you have his name surveyed. What they do is run his name on a computer data base, and if he has any type of interaction with the police, it should come up on their computer, from there you can purchase the information, usually in the form of a police report of some type for a minimal cost, at least this is how I did it in Texas. I used my son's mother's address's and found out the police had been to her place quite a few times for various reasons, suicide threats, domestic problems with her husband, etc.

I had been documenting stuff for 3 and a half years of the different things she would do or the way she would treat me in regards to our son. Now none of this had any effect on our custody case, it just helped me out in so many other ways. The list is too long to go over but I will tell you this, the moment I filed for custody, she had just been served divorce papers from her husband at the time about a month earlier. I was just waiting for something to happen, and with her having problems with her marriage and going through a divorce, that to me constitutes a "change in circumstance". You can always file for a modification if there is a major change of circumstance, and with her going through a divorce, that was a major key in my timing of filing for custody. She was also unemployed, had been calling the police to their house on several different occasions due to them fighting. There were alleged suicide threats, domestic assaults etc, in the police reports. Now I understand that those reports are not really admissible in court, she didn't know that and she didn't have any legal representation at the first hearing. I also was having to look out for our son who had been complaining to me about how he did not want to go back to his mother's house due to the fighting in front of him. There is so much more to my story but not enough space on here, I just had things go my way in court and after the social study, the Dr. recommended that it would be in our son's best interest if he were to live with his father. Just a couple of points of interest, I was never married to the mother, our child was the result of a one night stand, we have had problems in the past when it came to custody and her wanting to move out of state when he was 2, I took her to court and won that battle as well. I have been involved in our son's life since he was born, I did have a paternity test done when he was about 2 months old. I always paid support, even before we went to court to establish custody and visitation. She took me to court when he was about a year to get custody, support and visitation in writing. I was always wanting more time but she would make it as difficult as possible, I think things happen for a reason although it may have taken over 5 years to get custody, I am glad I was always there for our son and I never gave up.

Yes a father can really get custody, I am living proof of that. My son's mother was not a drug addict, alcoholic, a criminal. I presented my case, had testimony from a therapist my son was seeing. Document, document and keep up the recording, I had that too but never had to use it.

Why not just go for custody? I too live in Texas and have won this battle. If you go for custody, then maybe she will settle for 50/50. How close to you live near each other? If I were you, I wouldn't show her anything about the facts on your side, just let it come out in court.