Get the book, Mom's House, Dad's House and read it, and understand the basic principles in it. The judges are all kind of committed to making things work like this if they can. Don't try to make excuses for why it can't work, but rather give examples of how, if your stepson is at your house most of the time, it will work BETTER. I'm not suggesting that you actually give quotes to him from the book or refer to it as if it's the way this always goes... because the judges really kind of like to believe that this stuff comes from thier heads & common sense (and if you get the principles from this book into your head, you'll see that a lot of it IS common sense).

The thing is that some of it is really hard to do right, so the book will have tips & hints & explanations of why this is the right way to do it and why that is the right way to do it. If the two of you have this book in your head, and can figure out how you'll maybe change one or two things you've been doing or thinking, to make the nicer way of doing it that the book explains to happen... well, it's like at the hearing & the proceedings leading up to it, you'll be channelling that information. When you walk into the courtroom before the jduge is there, you'll be chatting about exactly that type of stuff and teh judge's assistants will be hearing that YOU are the reasonable ones waiting in the courtroom. Truly, it comes through in your manner if you're not being rabid & nasty, have read up on what's the right way to do things, and are really workign at trying hard for this... and the judges will try to make it work for the one who is trying to do the right thing...

Of course, you're even further ahead of the game if you show up calmly with this Mom's House, Dad's House stuff in your head about how to do right by the kid, but it'll be even better when the ex shows up looking like a raving lunatic while you're all about calmly trying to do right by the kid.