My son (12) is visiting me from Idaho, where he lives with his mother. He has to go back this coming Tuesday. At the beginning of summer his mother called me screaming at him and tell me she can't handle him, if I couldn't take him she was going to admit him into the mental ward of the hospital, or put him in juvenile detention, because he was throwing a fit. I got him calmed down, but a week a d a half later, she did just that, put him in the mental ward. He stayed for a few days and was released back to his mother. 2 more ti es she called saying she couldn't handle it. I had been trying to talk my fiance to letting him come early (he already had plane tickets for the beginning of August), but she said maybe it's the mental ward is what he needed. That we can't afford it as I am the only one currently working. And that we don't know how long we will be at our house.

While on the phone during g these calls with his mother, I heard threats of physical and mental abuse, and once he got here, he told me everything. How she constantly yells at him, blames him for everything(even things his brothers do), threatens to break things I bought him (and has), leaves him home alone, up to 8-10 hours in the middle of nowhere with no way to call for help if needed, constantly makes fun of him, doesn't get him clothes that fit, eat.

I do not want to send him home, yet his mother already said that she would press kidnapping charges on me if I do not put him on the plane home this coming Tuesday.

We do have a court ordered custody plan, yet we haven't followed it, mainly only when it's convenient for her. This visit wasn't in the "my time" schedule. Going through it more closely, she is currently not doing 5 things the judge ordered her to. So that is contempt, I believe.

My question is, do I have to send him home? We have discussed his staying, and she says absolutely not. Bit I have I. Text she wants him to come down 4-5 or six times a year for visits. But I don't want just visits, I want to bring my son out of that shitty environment to a place where he has thrived since being here. He cries to me eveynight that he doesn't want to go home, that why can't I protect him.... it breaks my heart to not be able to save him.

Again, my question is, do I have to send him home? Would I be charged with kidnapping?

EDIT: HOLY FUCKING SHIT!! I DONT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, IF MY SON WENT BACK AND GAVE HER SO MUCH SHIT, OR IF THE STARS ALIGNED JUST RIGHT, OR MAYBE COMMEN SENSE IN THAT WOMAN FINALLY SHOWN THROUGH....

She called me yesterday and I said I can't talk because I was working, but I could text....

She literally asked if my son could come live with me for a year, just to see how it goes. Then, after that year, we will all sit and talk and decide what goes on from there. Granted She said she can't pay child support for the first year, I said wipe my back owed clean, and we will call it good for a year. He is going to be here within 3 weeks. I really don't know what the fuck happened. And I am not arguing it either. Thank you all for the supportive advice. After speaking with cps, and the cops here in California, they both advised that sending him back would be smart. So I did. And I have been in such a shit mood since last Tuesday.. still have not talked to the ex, she came by and gave me my mother's engagement ring back, but she can fuck off.

Thank you all.