No GAL :(. We didn’t agree at all on it. She wanted to keep both, but ended up just agreeing to keep my younger son. It was the mediator’s idea (we have recommending counselors/mediators) and the judge went with it. We are revisiting in June. My older son wanted to come live with me because of a multitude of reasons, one of which was fighting and failing at school, and told the counselor that (he also told them he wanted his brother to come with him). The end result was split the kids up because they didn’t want to move my younger son from his school because “he was doing fine” and “they can just see each other on weekends”. The result was my ex and i barely seeing the other child and the brothers seeing each other a lot less.

Like it makes sense from a rationale perspective but it really sucks because the boys grew up together and miss each other.

I only fought for custody of my kids because my older was doing so badly at his moms.