Help- Need suggestions to deal with Ex
Okay, 17yo has decided to go live with Dad as she doesnt' like rules here. She left without cell phone we had provided, car we had offered her, and most of her belongings. Said she could do better at Dad's so we said 'have at it!.' Now Dad (ex) is whining after three whole weeks of parenthood, stating I need to send CS directly to kiddo as it's not ex-wife support. He has arrears and we pay for the medical/dental/vision insurance though decree clearly states that is his responsibility; so I said no way. Until she treats this home with same respect nobody will see anything. She is always welcome here, but has to follow our rules. I found an old post where someone suggested to make 17yo visit here part time, as it will teach her to respect both sides of family, deal with ppl even in adversity and set her up to be successful in outside world. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated on how to 1) deal with 17yo and attitude and running to Dad's everytime she doesn't like it here, and 2) how to deal with ex who I'm sure is bashing us and telling them how mommy is keeping "all that child support" with no kiddos in the home. HELP!
You can do what my dad did to
You can do what my dad did to me when I was very angry at him. We lived with him as he was the CP. I ran to mommy cuz there was basically no rules there and I was an angry teen. He left me there for about I'm gonna go with 3 days and then I was told if I don't get my *ss home, he's gonna call the police and have me brought home. Needless to say, I went home. She's 17, in her opinion she doesn't need rules and is going to want to live with the parent where it's easier to get away with things and have no boundries. Again she's 17, she still needs rules to live by and boundries. Even if she wanted to go and talk to a judge and explain her reasoning on why she wants to live with dad, the judge will probably side with living with you still because it sounds like her reasoning is she doesn't like following the rules. Judges don't like hearing that, they want to know if kids can make good sound judgements to choose where to live.
Good Luck!!!
Oh and the part with dealing
Oh and the part with dealing with the ex, tell him to take you to court. If he still owes you back child support I'm sure the judge would make him continue to pay and he would also owe for the insurance coverage that he's supposed to have. Let the courts decide that too.