A couple of days ago, DH told me that BM talked to him and told him she wants more time with the kids. He said she actually told him, "Well, think about it. Talk to stepmasochist about it and see what you think." Wow. She thought of me.

We've had custody of skids for over a year now. Right now she gets them EOW - they ride the bus to her house after school Fridays and ride back to school from her house on Monday, and Thursdays overnight.

She's really the most stable I've ever seen her. She had drug problems which is the reason we decided to try for custody, but as far as I can tell, she's been clean since she got knocked up with kid number 4 the April before last.

The kicker though that DH said to me is that BM told him if he signed something giving her more visitation she would sign off all of his back child support. He told her, you should do that anyway because it's the right thing to do.

I told him, she's going to have to do that anyway. The majority of the back child support is because it hasn't been changed with the state since we got custody. We've been waiting for the finalization of the "modification of parent child" whatever which is scheduled for court in a couple of weeks. At that point, our lawyer said he was going to include it in that. Everything plus interest is going "poof!" She'll be lucky if she doesn't come out owing US. We could go for back child support, plus interest for the last 17 months. I can't believe she thinks she actually has some bargaining power with that.

I told him, you're not signing anything and I don't want to change anything before the finalization. I want it on paper with the current schedule. If we should choose to allow her more time, I would want to do it on a trial basis. Maybe an extra Wednesday before her weekends or Monday after. I told him, the kids are thriving with us. SD10 went from being a worried mess to a vibrant, happy little girl who just won a pretty big deal leadership award from her school. SD8 went from failing kindergarten when she was with BM to being one of the best readers in her class and from throwing fits at the drop of a hat, to learning that fits solve nothing. SS6 is doing great and the kid doesn't have nearly the emotional issues he had when he first came to live with us. So, I'm hesitant to change anything. I guess we have a while to decide.