How do I save my step children?

My husband has custody of his 3 children. We live in MO. They have visitation with their mother. She lives with her boyfriend who is adicted to drinking and drugs. He has even taken the children with him to deal drugs. My children know how to roll a joint and have found his stash under the couch before. We have called family services, but they say that there is no proof and they can not do anything. This boyfriend is also abusive to the mother and the children have seen her slapped, hit and been chased down the street before. We hate sending the kids over to that sort of environment. What can we do to keep the kids safe from this sort of thing? We are lost. Any help would be appreciated.

Have you tried filing to modify visitation? Perhaps going to supervised visitation? For an action like that you will need to document everything that is going on at Mom's house.

If he is a drug dealer, have you also thought about calling the police and turning him in? They may or may not follow up on your tip, but it's worth a shot. At least it would temporarily remove him from the situation. Sounds like he is the one who's the problem.

I feel for you. My fiance's 2 daughters live with their mother and she lives with a guy that is abusive to her in front of the children and drinks all the time. Our hands are pretty tied for what we can do, but as the custodial parent, I would think your husband would have more power.

This sounds like a really bad situation. Hopefully someone with more legal expertise will be able to help you, I just wanted to get you to the top of the list and offer you my own thoughts.

Good luck!

protect the children

once again, I'm advising someone to call CPS, once they get involved they cannot step out they have to finish every case they have top to bottom, they will step in and investigate the home, they will speak to the children which if you have them talk to them at your home they may feel less threatened and tell the truth about the boyfriend, i would definately document everything you see by dates and times and modify visitation rights, mom should get herself out of this situation if she's pressured to do so, I don't know about her but if I thought I could lose my kids due to the jerk I was with, I'd be gone in a heartbeat, if not then I wouldn't deserve the right to have them in my presence, my opinion is if she allows them to be in that inviroment she's just as guilty, think about it, what would happen if you stopped the kids from going, she could call the police to escort her in to get them, but then guess what? officers have to document why they were called out for and why they had to escort her in, i guess now we have proof that we tried to intervine huh? All i can say is love will find a way and we as parents always say we would lay our lives down for them, i guess it's time to show them how much we really do love them, right? do what it takes.