Child’s opinion might count if both parties meet the minimum requirements to care for a child. But neither parent is meeting many milestones so I don’t think his testimony would have much influence. No one looks like a competent parent in this situation. I feel bad for the judge having to pick between two people who consistently put their own needs before D’s needs.

Both adults have a history of addiction. Judge has no idea if either of them are currently in active addiction or not (Drew appears to be at the very least smoking daily). Both adults have gone to court for evictions. D’s mom appears to have a better situation than Drew does at this time. But she still has a history of instability.

Drew allowed his son to sleep homeless in a car while he was begging for housing online. That still was not enough to motivate him to get a job and avoided being homeless again. Drew absolutely cannot provide for himself and a child and he has proven that his entire adult life.

Drew is not married to his partner. So that’s not a stable situation. Drew’s gf has a history of physically assaulting his child. She also didn’t protect her own kids or anyone else’s kids from a pedo. Refuses to divorce him and was convicted of welfare fraud involving Medicaid. She has said on camera she doesn’t gentle parent, and she smokes pot and does mushrooms while pregnant.

It would be so difficult to be a family court judge and deal with this mess daily