Child custody

I just had mediation but my stbxw and I have no grounds for negotiation. I am a nurse and my ex wants to use my schedule against me. I work Fri, Sat, and Sun. nights. I have held this job for three years and this schedule for over one year. I take care of my 3 1/2 yo daughter during the week and we have a 50/50 time split. My ex wants to move two hours away to live with her new bf and because he owns his own house she wants to move my daughter there. She claims she moved because she could not get a job here but the truth is she could not keep a job here. I just found out she is pregnant (she doesn’t know I know she is pregnant) and claims to have been seeing this guy for six months. We officially split up 7 months ago when she was planning to move out of state to be with a different guy that she had just met on the internet. All totaled she has been with atleast 5 different guys and wanted to move to five different places in the last year. My daughter has no connection to this new town and neither do I. My stbxw wants to reduce me to seeing my daughter every two weeks and have this new guy raise my daughter. This will break me. I am not dating and even if I was I would not bring anyone around my daughter much less move in with them. My daughter has always lived here. Her mother’s family is here. She has been at the same preschool for two years. She claims the mother should have special rights. I know that the “tender years doctrine” is supposed to be out of favor, but it is still scary to think about. I have a great lawyer and my ex just changed lawyers from a really good one to one that is famous for courtroom nastiness. Will a judge really take a child out of a stable home and send her to live with my sbtxw and her BF who are currently living in a technically adulterous relationship? Will her being pregnant help or hurt her case? Will a judge really punish me for having a good reliable job just because the shifts are twelve hours long. I only work three days and have the rest of my time for my daughter? I am losing alot of sleep over this. My lawyer says she has quite an uphill battle.

I cannot predict what any one judge will do in any one case, but based on my experience, it is very difficult for one parent to move away with the child absent the other parent’s consent. Normally having a close relationship with both parents is presumed to serve the child’s best interests. I agree with your lawyer that she has an uphill battle.