u/SuperbChampion8005

Context: I have 15 year old twins with an ex partner. I have had primary custody for their entire lives. They have always lived with me. In early childhood, they would often go for long stretches of no contact with bio father. He’d disappear for periods of time and then resurface. All of that to say, I have made the parenting decisions for the entirety of their lives. I would consult him, but it was hit or miss whether I’d hear from him. I filed for child support when they were 10, and he magically reappeared and wanted custody suddenly. We currently share a 70/30 split, with joint decision making. Due to issues with harassment and threats, I had an RO for awhile. I do not have any contact with him and vice versa. The only time I have directly contacted him in the past couple of years was for medical emergencies. Our custody agreement will expire in about 2 years, and I just want to ride this out until it expires.

All that to say; I am a hobby genealogist. I have done DNA testing, and have built an extensive family tree for myself. One of my children is interested in having DNA testing done himself. I’m assuming I will need to get permission from the bio father to do testing. Can I get suggestions on how to approach this? Do I just let it go and wait until child is no longer a minor?

My son won’t get any information from Dad himself. Parents (as far as I can tell) were probably undocumented, and what little information the bio father has he will not share with the children. They do have some contact with their grandmother, but they don’t speak the same language so that is not a source either.

Our daughter started pre k today. It’s a half day, so don’t need to worry about lunch, but we do have to send snack. There is a child in the class who has allergies. We were in class with her last year, and there were zero issues. But this year the school is implementing new rules. The following is not allowed:

-Nothing containing eggs. Nothing that may have been processed in a facility with eggs.
-No nuts. Not even coconut or coconut oil.

Additionally, no raw vegetables.

Our toddler is an extremely picky eater, and it is a massive struggle to get her to eat anything, and an even bigger struggle to get her to try new foods. She exists off of baby carrots (not allowed) snap peas (not allowed), babybel cheese and pb&j sandwiches (obviously not allowed). Yes, that is its own separate issue that we’ve been working on addressing.

Any ideas for snacks that fit all of that criteria? We do a lot of Harvest Snap dried fruits. She won’t do the veggies, won’t touch veggie straws with a 10 ft pole. We are allowed to do goldfish and ritz, which she’s fine with. But I’d prefer somewhat healthier options.