[F]I'm curios as to the laws regarding children's rooming arrangements. Especially in custody cases. Is there a certain size house that is required for number of children, etc. What other living arrangement topics do we need to be considering? Thanks for the help.

Normally there is none. If you are going to adopt, or if social services is investigating some abuse, But a single parent with 3 kids can live in a one bedroom if that is all they can aford. The other side can try and make it an issue, but if the children are happy and safe normally it won't be.

HUD's standard is two of same sex per bedroom.
I don't think the size of the room matters too much cause I saw the Rocks Terrace and they were really small rooms.

Other than that use common sense like teen needs privacy from grade school age.

What about when fighting for custody? If they all have their own room one place but not at the other? What if they all want to be in the same room and don't want to be separated? Age range 5 to 11. The youngest is a male who hates to be away from the others. I kind of meant square footage of the overall house.

What the kids want has some merit, but this sort of issue shoulid not effect it very much at all.

If somebody is going to check on the living arrangements they will tell you what they expect and give you time to comply. It also depends on who is doing the checking and their attitude.
I have seen some come in peoples homes and say something was not acceptable.
I have seen them come in others homes and say nothing about a grade school girl and two
Younger boys all sharing one bedroom with the mom and dad.

Do you know if it is that way in Texas? How difficult can a custody battle be? Say the mom has custody but rarely sees them. They don't really want to be with her much although they do love her and want to see her some times.

They never want to leave the dad or the dad's girlfriend. The custodial parent's mother helps her out quite a bit. IN fact she has them more than the mom does. She is the one who takes them to Dr's visits, shops for them, etc. The dad also does a great deal of this. HE is also currently paying her half his salary and gets them a ton.

The dad is always in the picture. Keeps up with their grades and medical stuff. The mom rarely has their meds filled or gives them their vitamins. Homework projects only get done with the dad and girlfriend; especially the research ones. The girlfriend also has a child.

The dad and the girlfriend currently reside together while one is house hunting since the lease at the previous place was up a few months ago. The question is whether one should find a house or if they could stay in the one they are all in and it would be ok/ look okay if a custody battle broke out. A "possession" situation is in the air. A signed agreement from the mother is being waited for. She agreed in arbitration but hasn't signed in well over a month. She has previously withheld the children from the dad because she doesn't want him to have them too much because her lawyer said it was bad. She doesn't want to lose her extra paycheck that she buys her $250 boots and outfits with and that she parties on.

The custodial mother has a clean record and hasn't gotten in to any legal trouble that is known of. Her fault is she puts herself before her children, always. She introduces them to her DIFFERENT "friends" regularly. None of which are crimes. She yells at the kids and harps on them all the time. She doesn't talk with them only at them. I bet she doesn't even know the last time she sat down and played a game with them. Her "outings" with them consist of some kind of social benefit she gets from them or something that will occupy them while she chats with her friends. She'll give anyone the sob story of how much she doesn't want to lose her kids who will listen and will bad mouth the dad until the cows come home. She uses the children as a tool and a weapon and hurts them in the process, as long as it furthers her efforts, it doesn't matter to her.

Now this is TX and none of this can get you custody of your kids. The dad is an upstanding citizen and in civil service. The girlfriend is a single mother and a student who is also an upstanding citizen. Of course there are little past issues with the whole lot but it is probably minuscule compared to what the courts deal with. It is an over all law abiding group who has never had any legal trouble other than the divorces they all had to encounter.

I know it is a lot to digest and I'm sure I left something out but you get the gist of the situation. I am hoping to find out what needs to be done to improve our chances and what our options are and what we need to be doing to get the best results possible.

Whew! Any questions?

Sadly that is the way many single moms treat their kids.
They have a few live in bf's within a years time
They use the child support on themselves
They ignore the kids

The only thing you can do is tell the Judge the things that she does that are not in the best interest of the kids and show how the kids do better with school and discipline with the dad.

And the fate?? It just up to whatever the judge decides? There is a chance that he already isn't too fond of her due to the way she acted at a previous hearing but you know, they can be so wishy washy. How the kids are "better off with the mom" when they aren't with the mom and the mom doesn't really even want to be around them is beyond me!

At least she hasn't moved any of the "friends" in. They have met 2 or 3 different ones in a two week period though. UGH! And what if she does move one in!

Is there anything we can do from our end to make it better for us? Like the bedroom situation or living quarters?