Hi, I have a bf that lives with me(we have a baby and he has an 8 yr old daughter). He was never married to the BM and they separated when his daughter was 2 months old(she was cheating on him and moved new guy in 3 days after he left). They have never had a custody arrangement for 7 years he got her every wed and every other weekend(he wanted her more but at the time his work/living arrangements made it very difficult). For the past year we now get her every wed plus every other mon fri and weekend. So a total of 10 nights and 12 days a month. We have been talking about trying to get 50/50 custody this year as her living arrangement at her moms isn't good at all(they cheat on each other and tell the 8 yr old about it, fight in front of her, have no rules/structure etc, tell her she's fat and she's now she's obsessed about calories intake and all that and she is very skinny already, the list goes on). We almost filed earlier this year bc she called us at midnight hysterical that her mom and the bf were going to kill each other). 
   The BM over the years has filed for CS but then dropped it after she realized she'd lose benefits etc. My BF has always paid all daycare fees, school fees, lunches etc it averages to about 150 a month. He also buys her school clothes and paid for any after school stuff she was in like gymnastics etc.

She just decided to reinstate child support for the added expenses bc the girl is getting older(not sure why that has to do with anything). So we have her 12 days a month and at least another week she stays with her nana(my bf side). So she doesn't have her even half the time, doesn't pay for school or any related expenses or daycare and they have Medicaid so she doesn't have medical bills. She threatened to reinstate it last year bc her and her bf were breaking up and she said he had agreed to pay 800 a month and expected the same from my bf(mind you the guys only make 30 to 40k a year so they aren't rolling in money). So they reinstated CS for $180 a month pending review but my question is how hard will it be now to get 50/50 custody? I thought it would be easy but now I'm wondering if they'll just take it as he wants out of CS which isn't it we've been planning on doing this awhile and he's nervous bc he really has no rights right now and is afraid she will use the daughter as a pawn and not let her come here. We are meeting with a lawyer next Mon but I just wanted to see if others had tried this and what the outcome was.