Have I mentioned loathing the legal system and having to make another appearance !?! Preparing for yet a round in court is emotionally, physically, and financially draining. Of course, I would prefer not to have to consider this option but am left with no choice besides accepting the sub-standard care that Cruella provides and I can't do that.
Last July (2007), with the support of my wife, Piglet, we filed for a change in custody. Cruella had been lax about everything but suddenly with a court appearance approaching, she changed her tune. Communication from her did not really improve but her care towards the children improved.
Cruella hated me more now than ever because I was a drug addict taking her to court over custody of the children and was facing the possibility of losing child support. (NOTE: at one point Cruella wanted to put Roo in one of the best pre-school's in the area and asked me for more money to do so. I couldn't give her more as I was barely surviving on frozen pizza's daily for meals and was doing well to keep medication on hand. She said she could take me back to court for more money and I said "go for it".) Cruella couldn't circumvent the compiled information at this point but still tried to make things look good on the outside to the courts.
Health insurance for the children, their education, dental health, mental health, and physical health were the issues at hand. There was no way she could lie her way through this. The health insurance had been a battle for a long time. I wanted to put the kids on my insurance because it was a better choice. Although, I tried to have Cruella share with me details of her insurance for comparison, she never would. I provided her with my insurance information but she never shared. Cruella wasn't paying any attention to Eeyore's homework and it was showing in his grades. Eeyore's dental health was poor at best until I stepped up to the plate and took responsibility. For example, I spent $1000 out of my pocket to have his teeth repaired by a pediatric dentist. Cruella didn't care one way or the other. Nor would help with this cost. Eeyore's mental health was also deteriorating because of the mixed environments: Cruella's with no structure, boundaries, or consistencies versus mine with structure, boundaries, consistencies, and expectations. I pushed to have him in counseling and was of course meet with resistance from Cruella. Eeyore was also having problems with encopresis. Part of this is his diet and aprt of this seems to be emotional. Fortuantely, Roo is far healthier than her brother, Eeyore. Roo, at some point, may tell her mother to kiss her a**.
Anyway, we set off for another court appearance scheduled for December of 2007. From this hearing, Piglet and I leave with shared physical custody, and the authority to make any health and academic changes. We elect to leave the children in the same school despite an overwhelming desire to put them somewhere better but we do elect to put them on our insurance.
We return to court in May as expect by the appearance in December. The judge made the shared-physical custody changes legal but we went back to trying to co-parent. Sadly, since May of last year, Cruella has not changed and is clearly unwilling to change even to benefit our children.
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