I've been spending my afternoons at the pool for the past few weeks. Not really my favorite place in the world, but my DD wants to go and it's summer. I usually take school reading with me, 'cause there is *not* enough time in the world to get it all done.

So yesterday I was sitting in my camping chair reading a law book (does NOT qualify as "light summer reading") when another mom comes up and we start chatting. I've seen her around several times and we've chatted a few times. Turns out she is a SM and they (she and her DH) have been in and out of court over the past few weeks/months.

They have a ton of kids between the two of them, but 3 are her step kids. She is lucky on one account; in public these kids are great. They are very respectful to the SM and to the life guards. She said they have their problems at home, but all in all are about the same level as her own birth kids. They have 50/50 custody of the steps. The BM on the other hand is a handful.

The BM keeps taking the father back to court for various reasons.

First, it was the bedroom situation. She didn't like the fact that each of her children didn't have their own rooms. The SM has a 7yo DS and a 7yo SS and the boys share a room. Evidently the boys are best friends and *love* to share a room as brothers.

Then, it was that the SM was undermining her as a mother. Turns out the SM was tutoring the middle child, a girl, who was 2 grade levels behind in math. The SM is a teacher for heaven's sake!! She was using a great book that the local school district does *not* use and it was helping the kid. By the time they were seen in front of the judge the kid was only 1/2 a grade behind. This is a problem........ why?!?!

This last one takes the cake, IMHO. The BM sued for a CS review. The father paid (before last week) a negligible amount a month in CS. He has the kids 50/50, EOW (is that Every Other Week?), 2 week summer holiday, 1/2 Christmas holiday, and they split Fall/ Spring Breaks, and it works out to be about 1/2 the year. He makes a bit more than she does, so he pays a small amount of CS. Turns out their lifestyle (SM & Dad) is *much* higher then BM's and she wasn't okay with that. (insert eye roll... 2 incomes vs 1 income... do the math?!) So what does the court say: Since SM is receiving SS income for her deceased husband's children it actually equals "3 incomes". Now the state is including ALL of the applicable income for the house for the CS order. They can't count the SS income, but they "can" count HER income. Now the CS order is more than doubled because they don't need as much to live on.

I asked her about their legal representation and she said they have a good attorney and he is appealing. They have to pay the new amount until the appeal is heard. It isn't looking like that will be before Sept at the earliest.

What on earth do you say to that?

I told her to come here and she would get some *really* sympathetic ears.

Kate