As everyone always says, there’s no book on how to be a good parent. The nurses at the hospital didn’t send you home with a manual. There are books and online courses and old wives tales, but there’s no consensus on how to raise a child in the best way possible. We all screw up...
Spare the Child: Virginia Custody Disputes
There’s not a roadmap that comes along with any part of having kids. From the time you leave the hospital until, well, I’m not sure when it ends, there’s really nothing out there that provides any kind of authoritative advice for what to do when difficult things happen. Likewise, there’s no manual for helping your...
I’ve said it before and, though it pains me, I’ll say it again. Where domestic violence and child abuse are concerned, the court is very, very jaded. It’s not just the courts, either. Attorneys, too, can become jaded. We hear terrible stories, day in and day out, and, sometimes, they’re not true, or they’re...
Coparenting is hard. It’s probably especially hard when it’s new and when everyone is still reeling from the shock of the break up, separation, or divorce. It’s hard, too, when holidays are coming up, when a new significant other is introduced, or when big changes (like a move or a new job) are on the...
In almost every case where child custody is a component – which can be either a petition or a modification of child custody, visitation, and/or child support at the juvenile court level, or a divorce where there are minor children involved – the mothers tell me that their main concern is their children. On some...
On Friday, we talked about the day to day details of your child’s life as it relates to school – pictures, report cards, parent teacher conferences, and more. One of the big questions we always get in these cases, especially as newly separated or divorced parents struggle to establish a coparenting relationship, is whether...
Navigating the challenges of a coparenting relationship is incredibly challenging. Even in the families who seem like they’ve got it all figured out, there was definitely a stage where they didn’t – where they struggled, where they went to therapy, where they did some soul searching, and where they felt certain that their choices...
Divorce is a bit of a downer even at the best of times, but it’s probably doubly (or triply) difficult during the holiday season. In fact, there are a lot of people who just don’t even deal with their divorce or custody cases until after the holiday season is over, or just wait until afterwards to...