Legal Question in Family Law in California

FINALLY someone asks the right question in this situation. Everyone else wants to know when the child can CHOOSE where to live, and the answer to that is never, until they are no longer a child. BUT the opinion of the child is ALWAYS relevant once the child is mature enough to form an opinion that is genuinely their own. How much weight it is given is based on the court's evealuation of the maturity and intelligence of the child, and whether the child is being influenced by the parents or forming an independent opinion. How strongly other factors weigh will also have an impact on the weight given the child's opinion. So if one parent is a drug addict and homeless, the child's opinion that they want to live with that parent will not get much weight. If each parent offers a good household, however, and the child is a mature 16 year old with a good head on her shoulders and a well thought through opinion, it will be given strong weight.