Hello all!

We just got done with our 3 week only session with my 3 SD's and everytime we pick them up, there is drama with the BM. When we picked them up, we did it at a police station. Originally my DH was really upset that she suggested it. Then we thought about it, "She can't do anything stupid." So he agreed. We got there and as soon as he gave her a check for her gas (we were ordered to pay her travel, which is total crap) the kids start crying that they don't wanna go with us. They didn't make ONE sound until that money was handed over and the eschange log was signed. This is in the lobby of the police station mind you. So there is screaming from SD9 and then SD13 chimes in, then SD4 does. The lady at the police station came in the room and asked if we needed help. BM said Yes. So they called a cop to come in. 45 minutes later we're leaving with the kids. She tried to get them so upset that she thought they wouldn't have to go. I brought the judge's order with me so there was no doubt it was our turn with them. The cop read it before going to see the girls, which were lead into a room in the back.

Husband is away for basic training and will be away also for Tech school. Before leaving husband appointed me to pick up SS on his designated weekends. (no Power of Attorney) BM is now saying that I am not in Possession orders and that i cannot pick up SS on weekends because my husband is not present.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080618/wl_canada_afp/canadachildcourtoffbeat_080618180800

$50 says this was a spoiled, over-privileged "child of divorce" whose permissive BM was egging her on

Heres the story: Tom(husband) asked me to join him at his sons p/t conference since his son lives with us 45% of the time and I offen help him with his school work.When his exwife found out I went she went to the school board and told them if they allow me to attend again she would sue them!She then told my husband she would take him back to court and get a court order to keep me out of P/T if need be.Now I think what 1st irritated her was she wanted my husband to go with her to the P/T but he wanted to have a seperate one(he can't stand being around her) and then invited me to go with him.

http://parenting.families.com/blog/stepparents-as-de-facto-parents-the-us-supreme-court-weighs-in

This article is a year old, so apologies if it's old news to some of you. It talks about a Supreme

I was just curious if anybody has heard of or tried to get the court to give a step parents rights even though both biological parents are still in the picture.

I am the ONLY one in my SD life that has any education past high school and neither bio parents was a very good student.

I was just wondering if anyone has gone for a change in custody of SKIDS due to what they felt was neglect by BM?

How did it go?

My husband is in the Army National Guard. He served 14 months in Iraq and after he came home, he went on reserve. Now he has joined a new unit and is doing drills again. He was told that in the fall his new unit is going on a tour in Iraq. They told him that half the unit will go over and half the unit will stay behind and man the base. So we are yet to find out if he is expected to return there again. My husband has custody of his son and BM sees him every other weekend, but sometimes is unavailable or only wants to take him on "her time". My husband has a $400K life insurance policy through the military. It says that I am to receive all of his belongings and I would get $200K and my SS, being 6 years old, will get $200K from his policy. I hate to even think about anything happening to my husband or even for him to have to go back to Iraq, but now questions have arose in my mind about this. If something were to happen to him, would I have any rights to my SS (whom I've done so much in raising)? Is it possible for him to leave him to me if he passes?

DH and I have been married 28 years, 2 BS's - a SD & SS for me (his). DH had a massive heart attack a couple years ago - almost lost him. We had wills done beforehand - standard wills: if he dies I get everything; if I die he gets everything. If we both go at the same time the 4 kids split his life policy evenly, our 2 split mine and then our 2 get the rest of the estate. It's spelled out very clearly and each party has been apprised several times.

Husband agreed to let SD14 go live with BM. Plan was for her to start new school today (Thursday, 1/24). But SD is still at our house, and there was a notice on our door last night that the sheriff's department is looking for my husband. We think they want to serve him with court papers.

Ok, I will keep it short for now... Here is the story, I am the SM and we had his daughter at our house for the past few days, I have been taking my step daughter to school, step daughter had gotten sick and called me to pick her up. I got to the school and I was not on the list for pick-up. And it gets better neither was dad. So dad came to the school showed his divorce papers where it states he has equal rights to his child, they added me and dad to the pick-up list.

I'm new here but not new to steplife. I am the step-mother to a 15 year old girl and the bm to 23 and 15 year old girls. We are non-custodial but have lived nearby for over 10 years and have had lots of visitation with my SD. I am custodial of my 15 year old.

I'm just curious for other opinions. Is child support for food and shelter only? My stepchildrens mother asks us for money for everything. We pay a monthly child support payment, but she wants us to pay for half of everything else on top of that.

When I and my husband got married I knew he had no properties or money whatsoever. He is a professor and has a modest income. I also knew he was paying children’s support for the next eight years. What I didn’t know is that… he and his ex-wife had a 25,000 dollars debt on the credit card. When he divorced his ex-wife, she didn’t take responsibility for her part on the debt, so he agreed to pay the entire amount. Years before getting divorced, they’d bought a house where his two kids and his ex-wife still live in. The house is on his name and also on his ex-wife’s name, but he is the one paying the entire mortgage. To sum up, 2/3 of his income goes to children and ex-wife debts. What’s left was hardly enough to pay for his maintenance as a single person (before we get married).

So here is my problem, SM feels that she can tell me what I can and cannot do when it comes to my child.

Here are some examples of what I deal with.....DH married new SM when my son was 6 or 7 (can't remember his age). They have him for a half week evey other week. At the time of divorce I felt that it was important that my son got to spend as much time with his father but wasn't comfortable with giving him a 50/50 split. Son's father lives about 50 minutes from my house (his own doing). SM has an attitude every time I see her. I get the impression that she's angry with me because I'm involved in my own son's life. My son's father and I use to get along even after the divorce until she moved here (my son was about 3 yrs old then). Ever since that point I was no longer allowed to call my son which I had been doing all the time when my son was younger, he no longer allows me to change days with him, they don't sit with us during events because of the animosity between us which means my son misses out on things and I feel that it doesn't give my son a good impression for how people should treat others.