Hi,

I have a 7 year Son which his father has custody of him. I have 2 other teens 15 and 14 years old from other relationship. I get to spend time with my Son every other weekend from Friday through Tuesday. He loves to be with me and his siblings, we go fishing, swimming and we get to play with him everything he wants. My older kids love their little brother and the little brother love his big brother and sister. When he has to go with his father he gets very sad and star to counting the days to come back with Mom. I do not have money for a lawyer but Im willing to do anything to have my son back home. His father has money and he hired a good lawyer to take my Son away from us. Since I don't have money or a Lawyer to hire I would like to know when he will be able to decide if he wants to live with us or with his Dad. He is always telling us how much he wiches he can stay with us more days and spend more time together. That brakes my heart and is very, very hard for me to see him live with his Dad. I know he is a good father but is only him and his Dad only living in a 1 bedroom home with nobody else to play. I have a 3 bedroom home with a big back yard and he enyoy when he is home. Can someone tells me what can I do or at what age he can decide where to live?

Thanks...
Desperate Mother:(

First, I must ask you to pay more attention to posting guidelines. This was moved from the Forum Help area which has a Read First warning that explains that only questions for using this site are to be posted there and explains how to determine where to post.

Had you read the instructions first, you would have found this forum and you may have noticed a sticky note at the top of this forum that would have answered your question.

The answer to your question is 18. In no state in the US is a minor child (under 18) allowed to make a decision as to which parent to live with. Only a judge can make that decision based on the best interests of the child. Some states do provide guidelines on how much weight to put on a child's preference. But not much weight would be put on a 7 year old's opinion.

To get a change in custody you would have to file for a modification of custody in the court that issued the custody order. As you have learned, if you go into court against someone who has a lawyer and you don't have you own, there is a good chance you will lose.

That being said, it is somewhat unusual for a father to get custody over the mother. So I'm curious as to what reasoning was given for awarding custody to him?

Your son can't decide. He can only tell the Judge why he would want to live with you.
From the sounds of it the Judge wouldn't change anything to accommodate what your son wants. They don't go by what the kid wants.
When he is 18 he can decide to come live with you.