What can you do when you don’t trust your child’s father to keep your child safe during his parenting time? In many cases, it’s difficult to show the court all the ways that a bad dad (though not necessarily an outright physically abusive one) doesn’t show up for his kids in a meaningful way. It’s...
Monthly Archive: September 2021
The world is hard on moms. We already know that, but I think that this is especially evident in custody cases. On the one hand, the world tells us that women are the ones best suited by nature to be caregivers for children. We’re maternal, selfless, nurturing – in short, best suited to pick...
I find that most of the issues, when it comes to divorce and custody, is that women don’t have enough information to make truly informed choices. We come to the table knowing – or, at least, thinking we know – certain things about the divorce and custody process. Mostly, we know that court is terrible,...
Abuse – especially abuse that is ongoing for a period of years – can really cloud your judgement, affect your thinking, and alter your sense of reality. It can be difficult, as you adjust out of that abusive situation, to reacclimate yourself to normal life. In general, I try not to project my experiences onto...
One of the scariest parts of separation and divorce is knowing that everything will be divided – but not being sure exactly how. Literally everything is up in the air, and you don’t know what your finances will look like in the not-so-distant future. That’s especially true when there’s debt to divide. In some cases,...
Custody cases are definitely challenging, and it can be very difficult to tell exactly what’s going on. In Virginia, courts use the ‘best interests of the child’ factors as the standard for making custody and visitation determinations, and the courts are aided by Guardians ad litem, experts, and others to help make those determinations....
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I’ll admit it: before I had witnessed any part of the collaborative divorce process, I assumed it was ultimately a lot like negotiation. You see, negotiation is the word we use to describe the process by which parties negotiate the terms of a separation agreement. Usually, when we say it, we mean with lawyers –...