Hi, I would like to know if anyone has been through the same situation as me and if they can help me with any advice on how to feel better or what I can do. My son is now 11 and his father called social services vendictively on us this year. We had social in and out until they made their enquiries and rightly so, closed the case in July. They spoke to my son at school and he said he wanted to live with us but still wanted to see his father (who has contact alternate weekends and alternate wednesdays). Following this the father has taken me to court for sole custody (he has been unemployed for 20 years and claims full benefits and is fully legally aided whereas my husband and I work so we don't get legal aid. He also smokes cannabis heavily and has done for years which I believe has caused paranoia, sleeps all day and is not responsible). We split up when my son was 2 and I remarried when he was 4. I now have two other children and my husband and I are doing our very best for my son always. The father made false allegations against us and took me to court for sole custody following the social closing the case. He has not paid any maintenance since my son was born. My son had to be seen by a Cafcass court reporter today and he told the reporter that he wanted to live with his father but that he was worried about how I would feel. I don't want to stop him doing what he wants to so I made the painful decision today that he can live with his father and he moves there on Friday. My son is distraught and said that he was forced to tell the Cafcass reporter this as she was wording things in a way and on the father's side. She had spoken to the father before me and he is an amazing talker and manipulator. I am so sad because my son has never told me he wanted to live with his father and I feel that the father is not a good role model for him and is manupulating him. My son has always said that he wants to live with us but he is afraid of his father's reaction. I feel sad and am grieving. I have tried to give him the best possible chance in life and he is in a stable family home but when he goes to his father's house I feel his father manipulates him into thinking that his life will be better with him. He told him he has taken out £400 for Christmas presents for him (he has never provided anything for him before) and he has done up his room for him just recently (he never had a room for him in all these years before and my son slept in his room). We have tried so hard to make him feel a part of the family but his father does not want him to feel in a family. My son has his chores to do at home and we do have a routine for him. When he goes to his father's house his father sleeps alot so my son is free to do what he wants with no rules. His father has no girlfriend, is not re-married and has no other children, no job and lives in a council flat (which he was at risk of losing apparently at the beginning of this year). I do feel that I am up against a brick wall when I speak to the authorities about his father as I feel that because social services were involved (because the father called them) they are not listening to me. Any advice greatly appreciated at this so very difficult time.