Reenlisting in the military and relocating with step-daughter

[leatherneck]

My wife, daughter, step-daughter (5 yrs old)) and I reside in Pennsylvania. She has primary physical custody and shared legal custody with her ex-husband who lives about an hour away. I am strongly considering reenlisting in the military which would obviously result in an out of state move. Would we be able to maintain physical custody of my step-daughter? We would be willing to give up summer and school breaks so she could be with him and have a webcam so she could see him whenever she wanted.

 

[presutin]

That will be something that needs to be negotiated between the mom and the father. Your wife needs to communicate with her ex and if and when they agree with the negotiation, then they need to file the changes in family court. Hope this helps!

 

[leatherneck]

That will be something that needs to be negotiated between the mom and the father. Your wife needs to communicate with her ex and if and when they agree with the negotiation, then they need to file the changes in family court. Hope this helps!

My wife's ex is not cooperative, and that's an understatement. Just recently, her daughter started school and they needed to a simple modification of custody and ended up going to court over it, because he refused to agree to anything she offered (which is more than the judge would award). He believes he has to fight over everything or he will be looked at like he doesn't love his daughter.

That being said, outside of court, her ex won't agree to anything. She would have to go to court for this. It would definitely be a better life for our entire family including my step daughter. But we wonder what a judge would say and if relocation requests for this type of situation are typically granted.

My wife and I agree that if the military life turns out to be hard on the kids, she would move back with family and I would not reenlist for another term after 4 years. Our kids welfare is number one to us.

 

[presutin]

Then have your wife's lawyer put a case together so s/he can solve this without having to go through the aggravation of having to deal with her uncooperative ex outside the court system. Good Luck!