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Deciding where a child goes to school can create a lot of tension when both parents want different things.

For the past few years, one father has had his son living with him during the school year and attending public school nearby.

The setup has worked well, especially since the boy has had no problems at school and plenty of stability at home.

Recently, though, his mother got her life back on track and decided she wants to homeschool him with his half-siblings.

That would mean changing almost everything about his current routine, and the father isn’t convinced it would be good for him.

Read on to see what the father plans to do.

AITA For keeping my kid in another state

So my baby mama, 24F, and I, 24M, had a kid at 17. At the time, she was going through a lot of mental health issues, and we ended up splitting up, and I moved about 2 hours away.

We had split custody until he started school. I would get him for a week, then she would.

Well, I chose to have him go to school down here because I have a steady job, a house, all these things that give a stable life to a child, and she had none of those things. She had 4 more kids with 3 different people, couldn’t hold a job, constantly got arrested, etc.

Now that the mother is doing better, she wants custody of the child.

Well, about the last 6 months, I’d say she has got her **** together and has decided to start homeschooling two of her other kids. She didn’t graduate high school, has zero college experience, and frankly wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

So now comes the big one.

She wants to homeschool our son (who would be the oldest of the kids). He’s been in public schools for 2 years, starting 3 now, and he’s had zero issues with it.

He understands her situation, but doesn’t want to change his son’s life.

I understand that she doesn’t get to see him a lot because he lives with me throughout the year, and she gets him for the whole summer minus one week for his bday.

Well, I want to keep him in public schools. Otherwise, he would go from basically being an only child with his own room and all these extra things I do just for him. He would be going into sharing a room with 3 other kids. He’d be unable to do many extracurricular activities due to funds. And his “teacher” would be someone who dropped out of high school.

I want to do what’s best for him, and even though it would be good for him to be around his half siblings more, I believe it would be detrimental to his education, mental health, and opportunities.

AITA?

Yikes! It sounds like the father knows what’s best for his son.

Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit think he should do.

This person doesn’t think the baby mamma’s changed.

That’s a good point.

Yes! Homeschooling takes a specific skillset.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister who refuses to give up her own holiday traditions to spend the day with her family at her brother’s cabin.

For this reader, the ex still sounds like a young girl.

The father has a pretty good reason to keep things the way they are.

After all, his son is already settled into school and has a routine that seems to be working.

And while it’s great that the mother has gotten her life back on track, that doesn’t mean changing everything right now is the best move.

For now, keeping him where he’s doing well makes more sense than uprooting him just so she can have more time with him.