My question involves a child custody case from the State of: North Carolina
My son is 7- his father and I were not married when he was born. His name is on the birth certificate and he signed the affidavit. We have been to court for child support which he does pay and he did a paternity test. We have never been to court about having a custody order so who has custody? Right now we split our time 50/50 he is there a week and then here. His grades are going down so I think the schedule needs to change because he is bouncing around so much. I have mentioned it a few times over the past few months but his dad doesn't ever reply to me or take what I am saying into consideration. Now his grades are going down more, his father isn't able to take him to school in the mornings, he has his girlfriend do it who works 3 days a week and has to wake my son up extremely early (5am I assume) to be taken to a family member to take him to school. He was recently diagnosed with ADD and that is hard enough on him without him losing sleep he needs each night. I want to change our schedule and it is in his best interest so the question is- if I change it on my own can he pick my son up from school and not give him back? he has threatened this before when he was mad at me. I would rather not go to court because I don't have the money to pay for a lawyer but I want my son to grow into a good individual and I can't just keep letting time go by with no changes.

