#ChildCustody #CustodyBattle #Divorce #Parenting #FamilyLaw
Dealing with a custody battle can be one of the most stressful and emotional experiences a parent can go through. If you’re a mother facing the possibility of losing custody of your baby to your husband, the fear and uncertainty you’re feeling are completely understandable. But rest assured, you have rights and options. In this article, we’ll explore the factors that are typically considered in child custody cases and provide guidance on how to navigate the legal process to protect your relationship with your baby.
Understanding Child Custody Laws
When it comes to deciding child custody, the court’s primary consideration is the best interests of the child. This means that the court will assess various factors to determine the most suitable living arrangement for the child. Some of the key factors that courts typically take into account in custody cases include:
1. The child’s relationship with each parent
2. Each parent’s ability to provide a stable and loving environment
3. The child’s preferences (this becomes more relevant as the child gets older)
4. The mental and physical health of each parent
5. Any history of domestic violence or abuse
6. Each parent’s work schedule and availability for childcare
7. The child’s adjustment to his or her home, school, and community
Creating a Strong Case for Custody
Given your concerns about your husband’s behavior and his desire to obtain full custody of your baby, it’s crucial to gather evidence and build a strong case to support your position. Here are some steps you can take to strengthen your argument for shared custody or primary custody:
1. Document incidents of verbal abuse and disrespect: Keep a record of any instances where your husband has been verbally abusive or disrespectful towards you. This documentation can serve as evidence of his behavior and support your claim for primary custody.
2. Seek support from family and friends: Reach out to people who have witnessed your husband’s behavior and can provide testimony to support your case. Their statements can reinforce your claims and demonstrate that you have a strong support network for your baby.
3. Consult with a family law attorney: A knowledgeable and experienced attorney specializing in family law can provide invaluable guidance and representation throughout the custody process. They can help you understand your rights, navigate the legal system, and present a compelling case in court.
4. Focus on your child’s well-being: In all your interactions with your baby, prioritize his care and emotional bond with you. Show that you are actively involved in his daily routine and provide him with a loving and nurturing environment.
Understanding Your Legal Rights and Options
As you prepare for the custody battle, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with the legal process and your rights as a parent. Here are some key points to consider:
1. Legal and physical custody: Legal custody refers to a parent’s right to make important decisions for the child, such as those related to healthcare, education, and religious upbringing. Physical custody, on the other hand, determines where the child will reside. It’s important to understand the distinctions between these types of custody and how they can impact your family’s situation.
2. Mediation and negotiation: In some cases, parents may be able to reach a custody agreement through mediation or negotiation, rather than going to court. This approach can offer more flexibility and control over the outcome, allowing both parties to create a parenting plan that suits their individual circumstances.
3. Court proceedings: If an agreement cannot be reached outside of court, the custody dispute will be resolved through legal proceedings. During this process, it’s crucial to present your case effectively and advocate for your rights as a parent. Your attorney will play a critical role in representing your interests and ensuring that your voice is heard.
Seeking Emotional and Practical Support
Going through a custody battle can take a toll on your emotional well-being and create logistical challenges. It’s essential to prioritize self-care and seek support from trusted individuals who can help you navigate this difficult time. Consider the following sources of support:
1. Counseling and therapy: Engaging in counseling or therapy can provide you with a safe space to process your emotions and develop coping strategies for managing stress and anxiety.
2. Financial assistance: If you’re concerned about financial stability after leaving your husband, explore resources such as government assistance programs, support from family members, and potential employment opportunities.
3. Creating a support network: Surround yourself with family and friends who can offer practical assistance, emotional support, and encouragement as you navigate the custody battle.
In conclusion, facing the prospect of losing custody of your baby to your husband is undoubtedly distressing. However, by understanding your rights, gathering evidence to support your case, and seeking legal guidance, you can take proactive steps to protect your relationship with your child. Remember that you are not alone in this journey, and with the right support and advocacy, you can work towards securing a custody arrangement that prioritizes your baby’s well-being and your parental rights. Stay strong, stay informed, and know that your dedication to your child’s best interests will be a powerful force in the custody proceedings. 🌟👶🏼
You need legal advice, not relationship advice, to be honest.
Document everything; every abusive word said against you, every selfish action, especially his comment about ‘male role models’. That suggests he’s gone down one of the internet’s misogynistic rabbit holes (Tate, etc.), which will be valuable information to your lawyer and the court.
Unless there’s a lot of missing information here, the chances of him getting anything more than 50/50 residence is slim to non existent. And given the age of the child, he may only get supervised day visits. Courts are generally reluctant to take babies away from the mothers overnight, for practical reasons as much as anything: regular feeding etc.
But this is the sort of thing you really do need proper professional legal help with.
Do *not* try to navigate this without legal assistance, or you run the risk of getting screwed.
He doesn’t want to pay child support, that’s why.
Make it 50/50 custody.
You sound a bit wishy washy about this, you’ve already said he’s abusive, narcissisitic and entitled and wants your child. You need to toughen up and prepare to fight. for this. Your Husband sounds unreasonable and like he’d happily put you through a rough time to gain custody of your child – he may not even want him, he may just want to cause you distress. His reasoning for wanting full custody of a 4 month old baby is ridiculous.
Document all his behaviour, times, dates, text messages etc. keep this information safe, keep your (and the baby’s) documents safe away from him.
Find a decent lawyer fast.
Get a lawyer. What your husband thinks he deserves and what he’s going to get are two different things. He would most likely have to prove you are an unfit mother to gain sole custody. Document every instance of his verbally abusive behavior. What he said, when he said it, and anyone who witnessed it. Make certain that there’s a parental alienation clause in your custody agreement.
Start recording & collect evidence. Also contact a lawyer
Idk where you are though, but where I’m at…unless the mother is not able to care for the baby (drugs, crimes, jail, etc), the chances are your husband will not get full custody. 50-50 is generally the ideal.
Start collecting evidence and you should lawyer up.
This is a conversation to have with a lawyer and most divorce lawyers will do a consult for free so do reach out to one or two.
That said you have an infant. Family court does whatever it can to preserve the relationship of children with both their parents unless there is some evidence of that not being safe for them. And an infant is even more likely to be kept with their primary caregiver.
He can want whatever he likes, but he doesn’t get to make the decisions so don’t listen to him, listen to a lawyer.
Get a lawyer. If you can get some recording of him being verbally abusive with his knowledge. This will also help.
Most likely outcome is 50/50. That’s going to be a tough pill to swallow. You’re not going to want to leave your child with him. But if you divorce, you’ll have to.
If he’s physically abusive, get evidence and get a good attorney. That’s the only hope of getting full custody.
Also – breastfeed as long as you can. Sometimes they’ll consider that in determining custody when the baby is under a year old.
Get a lawyer. Sometimes (in australia for example) a baby won’t even have overnight access with the father until 1 or 2 years of age as best for baby to be with the primary caregiver.
He’s most likely got no standing for full custody. Consult a lawyer and tell them your desired outcome (50/50 joint custody, unless I’m mistaken and reading it wrong). They’ll guide you through the process.
Please obtain good legal advice as soon as possible. The truth is if your divorce and your income is a great deal lower than your husband. He’s going to have to pay for child support and that might be part of the reason he’s being strange about a divorce.
It’s a very unusual, unless there is drug use or abuse happening, that court would ever award custody of a baby away from mom.
A good lawyer will be able to tell you what to expect in your state with divorce law and family law, including parental custody
Talk to a lawyer usually you get a free consultation. I would see if you have any evidence of his abusive behavior. Any texts or anything that shows it came from him. Usually with an infant if the mother has no record or any mental health conditions where the child wouldn’t be safe she would get custody. I wouldn’t offer a 50-50 split with him. You don’t want your child to be like his father, do you. He is telling you this because he wants to further upset you. The male role model will be filled by your father so that doesn’t hold. Who takes care of the baby? Who feeds, changes diapers, gives the baby a bath? I’m going to say it’s not him. Don’t let him stress you out!
Go see a lawyer and have them draw up the divorce and custody paperwork. Be the first to file otherwise he will say he wants full custody and you’ll have to fight against it.
Unless you’re a drug addict and your husband can prove it, he’s not getting full custody of your infant. Tbh, he probably won’t even get 50/50 until your baby is old enough to stop breastfeeding.
You need a lawyer, immediately. Go talk to one (bring your child with you) tomorrow. Do not listen to anything your husband says. Get the best lawyer you can afford and do exactly what they say.
Your former husband will not be awarded full custody. Please see a lawyer, move out asap and keep detailed notes of all interactions.
Don’t constantly call or write to your lawyer. That’s how you significantly increase your fees. They charge you every time they have to read correspondence or take a call. Make a detailed deposition on the state of your marriage, outlining all instances of poor and abusive behaviour. Make a comprehensive list of all assets. Then, unless you need a restraining order, just leave it up to your lawyer. They will take all the information you have provided and work from there.
You will be okay. You won’t loose your baby
Please seek competent legal advise
Please don’t go into court with the “narcissist” stuff; it’s so overplayed and the current “go to” claim.
You need fact based and documented situations to back your opinions for being a primary custody parent.
I read this post and I was like “This sounds like something I read last night” and I was right, lol. I’m really happy to hear that you’re planning on leaving, that situation did not sound good.
I don’t know the logistics of a custody battle. That’s for a lawyer. But what I *do* know is that you should not go for 50-50. Go for full custody. For one thing, you’re going to lose credibility to the judges if you say he’s abusive and awful but still say he should have your son 50% of the time. Secondly, he works insane hours and won’t have time for your son anyways. Thirdly, if you do get full custody that’s gonna mean more child support which is going to make a huge difference for your son’s quality of life because it might make it easy to move out of your parents’ sooner.
But most importantly, as a child of divorce and as the *son* of a narcissistic father, I can tell you with 100% certainty that **growing up with no father will be significantly better than growing up with that one.** Even though my father was in my life, *I had no positive male role model*. He completely warped and twisted every lesson a father is supposed to teach a son to try to turn me into a clone of himself and I had to unlearn and relearn so many things.
Read this sweetie…
And good luck in your court battles to come!!!
https://ia800108.us.archive.org/30/items/LundyWhyDoesHeDoThat/Lundy_Why-does-he-do-that.pdf
Are you breastfeeding?
A narcissist and manipulative person will start building a case against you to get what they want. They won’t hesitate to lie. Don’t think this person will be willing to have realistic conversations about your separation. He is already being unreasonable. You cannot reason with the unreasonable.
1 Get a lawyer or an advocate
2 Get an escape plan
3 Don’t tell him anything
4 Don’t agree to anything
5 Be ready to file immediately for temporary custody.
6 Don’t believe anything he says, unless it’s bad. Expect the worst. Sorry for the bluntness.
Good luck.
The only way he’ll get custody is if he can prove you’re a drug addict or something like that. The state almost always keeps small children with their mothers. Ask your parents to help you pay for an attorney and don’t even offer him 50/50. Give him the bare minimum time that the lawyer recommends.
Before a certain age (if you are in the US) judges let the mom have more custody. Mine was until kid was 3. He can say all he wants and try to scare you, that’s not how the system works. Get an attorney and you and baby will be fine.
What will likely happen is he finds someone else to do baby duty when the child is old enough, then as N’s often do, they get bored of the support and cost, or don’t get the adoration they feel they deserve. In the case I was involved in the age of 10 was the cut off.
Lawyer and keeping records, leave all communication open and try to keep everything in writing, parent apps or whatever, always bring a friend to meetups. Offer a structured schedule with supervision and keep records of when he refuses or doesn’t turn up.
Lawyers advice is generally good, read up on Narcissists as much as possible to see what they get up to and how to survive it.
Lastly do not reply to anything fast, leave it a day at least if possible get someone else to read it and your reply. Do not be sucked into emotional responses, rinse and repeat works, ie “that doesn’t work for me”, “talk to the lawyer”. Never reply in anger.
Who gives a damn what he thinks. Don’t take legal advice from the opposition.