What is the age a child can decide on who to live with ?

[wingit]

Luke,

I feel for you "Kalifornia" people, I can't imagine wasting my life away in traffic everyday. I have a coworker who moved here from the LA area 7 yrs, ago. He still marvels at the fact that he can get home from work in 7 minutes. lol He tells me all the time how he used to have to spend 1.5 to 2 hrs. one way, in traffic commuting to work. I guess it's all in what you're used to.

[Not Iowa]

Originally Posted by capitalcityguy

How sad for your children that you've created a situation where this question even has to be asked.

Yes, that is very judgemental comment, but forgive me for worrying about children. How many studies have to come out demonstrating the importance of a stable home life for kids before people stop thinking about their own self interests and start worrying about how they are damaging their children?



How about a better life for your children??? You're a parent. It shouldn't be about YOU.

capitalcityguy: what background information into this womans situation do you have that constitutes giving you the right to judge? Do your judgements apply to ALL people who do not have the nuclear family package? That would make you a pretty small minded person, to stereotype the majority of the population like that.

[LeAnne1968]

Wow, I'm glad I came back to visit and could find this page again.

First off, thank you everybody for your replies, I appreciate it.

While I don't think I need to defend myself in any way, I shall just for the sake to set a few things straight. I think I made it very clear that I moved to have a better life/job. Meaning : I lost my job 1st. 2nd, lost my home. 3rd, lost my car and had to live ( yes you're going to love this ) with my ex-husband. NOT a good situation.....

So, I commuted back & forth for 45 minutes each way ( after I was finally able to get another car AND JOB), every other day only to get back to my home town to not even be able to see the kids because they are too busy with their friends to spend time with Mom. So, we discussed it, and I decided to pretty much live "here" full time. Like I said, still VERY much a part of their life. Talk to them at least 5x a day if not more, and frequent home very often, as they come with me very often. Yes, I would love for them to be in my life "physically" EVERY day like it use to be. However, I won't force them to leave their friends and family of 14 & 16 years when I'm only 45 minutes away, IF they don't want to. They very much recognize how much my life has improved and enjoy coming here to stay with me. AND, Mom can give them a better life when she is in a stable position in life herself.

Anyway, I was just curious if anybody knew the age thingy just in case it would come to the point where we have to go back to court. I'm sure that won't be the case, but one never knows.