Social Security & Medicare

I am not a lawyer and don't like to give my money away, but, you are in a position to do some good for your grandson. You are providing him a safe haven and the possibility to do well in the future.

I had a similar situation with my sister in law after my wife's mother passed away, the parents were separated but not divorced. He (her father) granted us through a court order, custody so we could enrol her in school and put her on our family health insurance. We paid all of her expenses and we were a young couple with a baby of our own, and not a lot of money. Daycare was killing us. I wanted to claim her as a dependent on our taxes, she was 14.

Her father was a shitstain and was writing her off on his taxes even though he was not paying a cent towards her in any way. He said he would go to court to regain custody if we caused problems with his tax return. Could care less about his daughter but was concerned about his taxes.

The lawyer told us that a biological parent often wins in custody cases over a non- parent so we had to decide if it was worth the risk. We decided it was not and my sister in law stayed with us.

Don't cut off your nose to spite your face, get good counsel before you decide what you want to do and realize that there may be back side implications.