So, after an absolutely RIDICULOUS amount of time upgrading my Wordpress blog yet again, it’s apparently operational. Now that I have that out of my system, on to other things. 

I got an email from my wife today telling me that one of her friends had fallen victim to a society that can’t seem to do the simplist thing - allow equal rights for divorced parents. Her friend, a father who has taken care of his child for years after the child’s mother decided to take off, woke up today to find out that she had taken the child and left. That’s right. Un-enrolled the child from school, packed a bag, and moved 400 miles away.

A little back story - the child’s mother had recently come back and essentially decided that she wanted her daughter now. Obviously, the father was not okay with this and decided to get a lawyer and get custody. They had no previous custoday arrangement - I’m sure partly because the mother had run off. Nonetheless, I guess the mother decided that court systems and her daughter’s wishes and well being were a real drag, so she just up and left with the daughter. 

This is heart breaking to me. I can’t even imagine how that would feel or what I would do in that situation. How do you deal with that? How do you react? Some might say, “go get the daughter back.” Seems logical. But not really. Not only do you have to consider the trauma of pulling the child back and forth, but that would look very bad in the court’s eyes. 

Lessons Learned: 
 

1. Get a good lawyer
2. Get a CUSTODY agreement. Even if it’s not ideal, it’s still supposedly enforceable. 
3. Don’t divorce a heartless psycho who’s willing to steal your child in order to satiate their own needs.
4. Tell your Congressman that you demand Shared Parenting legislation.