OK, spoke to the other parents this arvo. Think she's scuppered if she wants to stay in Melbourne for partying rather than school. Agreed Monday-Friday at their place, weekends at ours with one weekend night a month allowed in Melbourne for special occasion like friend's 18th party. If there's more than one party on in a month, too bad, she has to choose which one she wants to go to. All school nights to be spent at the other parent's house. Must attend school. Those are the big rules and if they are breached then the deal's off and she moves to Woodend.

Lulu - that's fab that your daughter has turned the situation around. As I told DSD's friend's parents this arvo - I think the flaky school attendance and wanting to test boundaries on staying out is fairly typical teenage behaviour so I'm not OVERLY concerned about that. It's the stealing from friends, lying, complete lack of remorse for anything and manipulation of people that I find quite chilling. Did your daughter do this too - is there any hope that DSD will change her ways on this front too?

And before anyone asks, we were BRUTALLY honest about DSD's behaviour - we did not try to pull the wool over their eyes just to get her out of the way. We laid it on the line.