Change of Placement Order

[rdhdinwi]

Hi Soc

My DH's X is taking DH back to court because she says the youngest daughter (13) has said she doesn't like our house.  She refused to mediate so that was a waste of money as that is mandatory in this county.

We are now waiting to hear from the courts regarding evaluations being setup.

DH has had 50-50 placement for almost eight years, has had 50-50 custody since '94 when they were divorced.  There are no grounds for why SD doesn't want to live with us or why she doesn't like our house.

The other SD, 15, wants things to remain as they are now and is adamant about that.  Her mother will not listen to her.

This is all we know about why the girl doesn't want to live with us yet when she's with us, she's usually her bright, sunny, happy-go-lucky self although since this has all begun, she has been pretty quiet and withdrawn at first and then warms up.  The older daughter has been very vocal about how their mother takes the younger girl into a room, behind closed doors for "talks" yet she refuses to tell the older girl about what's going on.  We're concerned about this.

The X insisted we get counseling for SD which we have done but she will not participate because she believes we are the sole problem.  Yet the girl has threatened to run away at the X's house and has horrendous temper tantrums that scare the other daughter and none of this behavior has been seen at our home.

Our attorney seems to be pretty confident that we will at the very least keep the 50-50, which DH and I believe to be in the best interests of these kids.

For Waukesha County, Wisconsin, what are the odds that the judge would change the placement based on what I've told you.  Honestly, this is all we know about what's going on.  The X refuses to tell us anything other than the one daughter isn't happy.

We also wonder if there is any chance that if we were to go for full placement, we would get it because we can prove that the X has lied on several of the items in the motion to change placement and that we are the only ones actively working on counseling for the younger daughter and working with the older daughter's school because of her plummeting grades.

Any thoughts? Any suggestions?

Thanks, I appreciate it.

Rd

[socrateaser]

>Any thoughts? Any suggestions?

Just do what your attorney says. I don't think there's much of a case for changing anything, unless the 13 year old testifies that you're a monster.

[rdhdinwi]

I think SD would laugh at that word.  I think she's only unhappy when I or DH make her do something like pick up the pigsty she calls her room, get her dirty clothes out for me to wash or put the clean ones away, ask how her day was or take her turn with the kitty litter.  Pretty standard household stuff that we have all the kids do, including, gasp, my bio-kids!

Thanks, I appreciate your comment.  Guess we're just so tired of fighting and defending ourselves we have become a tad paranoid.

Rd