How hard is it for a father to get custody of his child? Mom is very unstable. No car, no job, and has always depended on men to pay her bills. My mother had my niece for 5 uninterrupted years, she's now 9. My brother paid child support, a lot in back pay, and my mom never rcvd a penny of that while she was taking care of my niece. My nieces mom took her this January, and in May, she called me and said she no longer could take care of my niece. Only after barely 5 months. And please note, my niece told us she went from house to house and changed schools at least 3 times in those few months. Naturally, I offered to take care of her. She's been with me 3 months already and now her mom wants her back. She said she's ready to take care of her now when only two weeks ago she was living in an efficiency with her boyfriend and her other child. It's not fair to the child who is now going to therapy for her anger/emotional issues. Because we want to help my niece and ensure this woman does not continue to ruin my nieces life, my brother, my mom, and myself have decided to gather all our papers and support my brother in filing for custody. The question is do we stand a chance?

IF your brother can offer a more stable lifestyle - then sure, you stand a chance.
It is hard to predict what a judge will do.

May I ask why your brother didn't go for custody in the 5 years his daughter lived with your mom?

Well, he knew that his child was doing well with our mother. He did talk to us about fighting for custody then but we all figured this women wouldn't care enough to raise her child on her own, so we didn't think it necessary. I don't argue that we should've done what we could back them. But now that we know this women will continue to play with the child's stability we feel we have to do something.

Is there a custody order in place now?

Can your brother go an file for emergency custody pending a custody case? I would think that that would be possible if no custody order is currently in place. That way, she can't just come and get her because she feels like it.

I agree, you should do something. A child needs stability.