Several weeks ago, a guy in a pickup truck came flying down the dirt road that leads to my house and as he reached the soft bend in the road, he lost control of his car and plowed directly through my fence. Without slowing down at all, he sped through our front yard and came way too close to hitting my husband and our two precious little boys, who were all playing together outside. It didn’t end with that though, surprisingly, the man decided that he wasn’t going to stop and take responsibility for what he had done. Instead, he …

As a father involved in a child custody dispute, you may feel nervous when thinking about the possibility that some child custody evaluators and judges could hold antiquated and inaccurate belief that men are less capable of providing nurturance than the mother, or that your bond is somehow less important than the child and mother’s. History Before the eighteenth century, a father who divorced his spouse had property rights to not only any marital asset, but his children as well. During the 19th century, thing flipped when the Tender Years Doctrine came out. In this doctrine, a mother would get …

Parental Alienation & High Conflict Divorce:  Without question, the break up of a marriage creates an overwhelming amount of stress, even during ideal circumstances. When you add kids in to the mix, the new source of concern typically (and appropriately) shifts away from the parent’s own feelings and instead becomes centered around making sure that the children are “okay”, without any long term emotional damage. Unfortunately, divorcing parents don’t always have the luxury of dealing with the “ideal” former spouse, and some are so misguided or irrational that effective communication is nearly impossible . When attempting to co-parent, some parents …