It is potentially a long story but the gist of it is, my H has a 15 yo daughter who lives with her mother. She's failing at school and, up until last week, we couldn't understand why she was so apathetic about her studies and the rest of her life. We arranged a meeting with SD, her mother and her step dad with the aim, on our side, of reaching an arrangement to try to improve her performance at school. However, her mother sat there and told H's daughter that if she doesn't want to work at school, she doesn't have to. We feel that this is at least partly to score points against H and I as we are currently "the enemy" for trying to make her do her homework and behave at school. As far as her mother is concerned, she is the only one who has any say about how her daughter is disciplined etc, even though her stepdad has been around and supporting them for over 10 years, and H pays maintenance and has been involved throughout her life.
Obviously, SD's best interests are not being served by her mother. H and I are disgusted by her attitude and now understand where the issues have been arising from. The point is, at 15, can we actually do anything to get custody of his daughter? We know that she would not choose to be with us as we would not accept her attitude or allow her the freedom she currently has. Do we have any options at all?
TIA,
Em
