I wish that he would focus a little bit more on the kids. It is disappointing that he would waste his time with them running with his buddies when he can see the guys all the time, but has limited time with the kids.
I hope it's not true, but when I was using the child-support calculator today it asked how many nights are the children with the non-custodial parent and I guess each extra night means he can pay less child-support? It seems obvious to me that he's just doing it for that reason, since he doesn't spend much if any time with them that day. It's something he started a few months ago after almost a year of having them one night a week (the first couple months he didn't have them at all.)
I'm hoping I can work out maybe him having them 3 or 4 weekends during mediation which , if he wants to lower his child support then he could show that by spending time with them on the weekends when he actually could spend time with them. D9 has complained several times this past week or 2 about how bored she is at his apt. all day when he's out running/working.
I may look into the teaching at the LD school in our area (btw all the schools like that in FL are similar prices when I called all about $15,000 per child a year and we would have double that right now. I think they would probably give me an employee discount but since they pay their teachers minimum wage (I did look into that at one point) even with a good-sized discount for both, I think it would be way too much. Maybe when at one point I'm down to one child, D9, that would be something we could work out and I'll look into. I live in a town where there are 3 4 yr. colleges graduating Education majors so it's pretty easy for them to get teachers even at the low pay. And I really don't begrudge them the high tuition, they have about 3 kids in a class they say and it almost sounds like homeschooling in a way, they don't do grade levels and have them working at their own individual levels. They have all kids with learning disabilities, and it's supposed to be good (from other parents I've talked to).
I almost forgot to mention that the yellow house owner called me today and offered to rent me the place & sign a lease tomorrow. They seem like really nice people, and it's a quiet house in the country on 3 acres so should be good for the kids. The kids both wanted that house. The only negative I think is that they don't have appliances. No washer & dryer, dishwasher, frig, and the one thing they do have is the stove which looked about 20 years old. In a weird coincidence I'm one of the few renters that actually has her own appliances, but I'm thinking I'll have to get professional movers maybe to move the appliances (do they hook them up too she says hopefully?) Karen
Karen