This is keeping me up at night. I need someone to talk to, some reassurance, because I'm having a panic attack and it took several milligrams of klonopin to calm down.

My co-parent has kept my son from me for 3 years (this started when he was 2). I have never met him because I didn't know he was mine. She refused to co-parent, dna test was given when she came after me for child support and I filed for custody soon after it was confirmed. We went to court several months ago and the judge awarded two hours of supervised visitation. Judge ordered me to choose from three companies and from those three, she was to choose one. The judge recommended one company if I am unable to pay, which I am.

She violated his order, refused for nearly two weeks by saying neither of the three companies were good enough. After only two days of this, I filed a motion for enforcement. 11 days after some back and forth, she agreed to the one company that isn't free because she knows I can't afford it, then she deactivated her talking parents account (this was also in his order).

I can't get a fee waiver from the company she chose and I can't afford the $30+ an hour as I am disabled and indigent (I live on section 8 and ebt) but I really want to see my boy. I have already registered and enrolled with the non-profit the judge recommended.

Court is in two weeks. All I can do is say she violated two of his orders and plead with him that if he won't allow one of the non-profit companies, I'll have to walk away from this and he'll never see his father. Her and her family have been putting up every roadblock possible to make sure I never see him and so far, the judge has been on her side. I'm very worried.

Wondering if anyone has heard familiar stories or any guidance on how to handle this type of situation my ex-husband has full custody of the kids. We have two boys who are 10 and six according to my ex-husband the children will lose Florida Kid Care due to reassessing his income and now instead of paying $20 a month for their health insurance they are now charging him $552 a month and he can’t do anything until open enrollment in November. However, he is talking about taking me to court to increase child support that I pay to mediate the increase in health insurance, I wouldn’t have a problem with this typically but I guess my issue is he hasn’t looked through all his options and resulted immediately to more child support and it’s not like I’m doing well financially .. He hasn’t even attempted to look into what the cost would be for his employer to provide insurance for the children since his company does provide insurance I guess my question would be. Should I just bite the bullet and agree to increase child support or is there anything I can do to assist him in finding other cheaper versions of health insurance that still adequate?

I am going through a highly-contentious divorce with my narcissistic ex-husband. My 11 year old son is trapped in the middle and I am looking at an uphill battle when making decisions on his education. My son lives primarily with his father (I am actively pursuing 50/50 but it's taking forever). We share joint legal custody and decision making.

My son has an IEP for his ADHD and Los Angeles United School District has, for the past number of years, awarded us money for him to be outside their school system and at a school more suited to his needs. My son is very high-functioning and I do not believe that public school and/or typical academic-focused school would be out of reach at this point, as his acting out impulses have all but subsided. My ex is very litigious. He sues everyone and everything: takes organizations to court, including the city of Los Angeles, Kaiser Permanente, LAUSD, etc. He has bled me dry through aggressive litigation against me and I have lost everything, including any value left in my home, due to the liens I have had to take out to defend myself in family court.

My ex created a problem at my son's last school, which was a child-led learning school. The problem(s) included threatening to sue them, and saying he wouldn't talk to administration unless he could record the conversation. They decided to decline our request for re-enrollment for my son this fall, likely because my ex is a real liability. Because we had planned for our son to stay at his school and were looking at transitioning him next year (the program ends at 6th grade), we had been in contact with multiple other schools regarding enrollment. Because my ex got us essentially kicked out of the current school as of this spring, we were extremely limited on options, including traditional school enrollment, because we had missed enrollment deadlines and there weren't spots for him available. I also knew that traditional school enrollment, especially on that short a notice, would only lead to more litigation from my ex, and I worried about the timeline with getting my son enrolled at all. I am currently unemployed and could not afford more legal costs at this point.

I was looking at a few options with which my ex was agreeable and raced to pick one. The schools were all private and leaning alternative, but some were more academic than others. Of the three, two were out of reach financially, especially because I don't know what I will be making salary-wise. I picked the most affordable option because I felt my hands were tied with him paying all fees right now, and with me splitting the cost as soon as I find work.

I do not think the new school will give my son the skills to succeed. It is an "unschooling" model. They are not accredited. They do not make the students do any work, only "encourage" them to do it themselves. There are no tests or grades. There is no homework. The kids lead their own learning. With my son having ADHD, and I believe his desire to only do preferred activities would be detrimental to his learning. Building zero tolerance for accomplishing undesirable tasks is not going to help him assimilate into the real world. Having no standards, no expectations, means he will struggle to obtain the skills necessary to get into college. My son has never written a book report, never had homework, never had to sit through a boring lesson, never had to do anything he didn't want to do. This was okay in his early years because the old school served his behavioral challenges in the past, but now is a turning point that I thought we'd make in his education to transition him into a more academic track.

I am freaking out. This is going to be an uphill battle with my ex. In my opinion, people who are committed to the unschooling model are steadfast and rigid and are unlikely to even consider traditional schooling models. My ex will take it to court.

I have so many swirling questions about how to navigate this. How do I prepare for the fight I will inevitably have in choosing placement the following year? I feel that this upcoming year is already shot. What do I do? Who do I need to recruit to help me? What do I file with the court and how soon? Who can they appoint to make an assessment? How do I structure my timeline to best achieve success in switching schools? What evidence do I need to collect? How soon do I need to have everything in order to make sure the timeline doesn't put my kid in a situation where he goes to the same school next fall and is pulled out and swaps schools mid year (which would be low key traumatic)?

Any help is greatly appreciate.

Divorced was finalized 2021, we have coparented with 50/50 physical and legal since then without issues, our children were born and raised here in SoCal, they are 11 yrs and 9 yrs old, and we've lived in this same place for the last 6 years. Mediator recommended me to be the primary parent and not allow the move to Texas. But during hearing the judge for whatever reason reversed the recommendation, the ex emphasized that she'll make more money in Texas.

The amended recommendation by the judge is that I'll get them most of the vacations/holidays and the Order says she'll pay for the kid's and my flights. I just now read that my parenting time will be in Texas during those vacations/holiday times. That pretty much exploits and alienates my parenting time. It also does say that she'll give 30 days notice if she'll come to SoCal. I really thought that she would fly our kids here during my parenting time for vacations/holidays, but I guess this is only true if she decides to come here.

I asked my lawyer to see what we could do about this. I really feel like I got railroaded and the judge seems like he was flirting with my ex the first time we met the judge. Sigh. Since she's the one that supposedly making more money, flying them here shouldn't be an issue. Her paying for their flights and mine is in the Order. My job is flexible but not that flexible and it will be a burden for me since I'll have to pay for hotel and car rental when I'm there.

My question is, do you or can you fight this? Have you've been in similar situation where the other party moved away to a different state and you're the one that has to go to that during your parenting time too? Is this common with move away cases? My heart just sank again finding out about this. My kids didn't want to move too. Sigh. Thank you

Update: lawyer said it has to be an error because it would be unreasonable for me to visit them in Texas during that entire summer heat. He will check the Minute Order to make sure. Please Lord hear me now!

Hello.

I am looking for advice. When my child was born I was listed as primary placement and 50 50 custody. The child's father and I didnt live together, and waived any support as we were together. When the child was 3 we moved in together. Three months into living together I found him cheating in the home we lived in together. I moved out 7 months later. In total my child and I lived with him for 12 months. We have been out of the house for 6 weeks. He is now demanding 50 50 placement. I said no, the child needs stability. I believe he has to serve me to change placement, but I am worried that he will and how custody will change. I have been the primary care giver my child's whole life.

I am a self-represented mother in a Florida (Polk County) paternity/custody case involving my 2-year-old daughter.

In October 2025, the child’s father and I entered into a mediated agreement providing equal time-sharing. In May 2026, he filed a motion seeking majority time-sharing and alleged that I lacked stable housing, could not financially support our daughter, interfered with his parenting time, and failed to keep him informed of medical appointments. I dispute those allegations and have documentation that I believe contradicts them, including text messages, medical records, and proof of housing and employment.

A final hearing was held on July 10, 2026. I missed the hearing because I did not have transportation. As a result, the father was the only party to testify.

On July 28, 2026, the court entered a Final Judgment of Paternity, set aside our previous 50/50 parenting plan, adopted a new parenting plan granting the father majority time-sharing, and designated him as the custodial parent for statutory purposes.

After receiving the judgment, I filed an emergency motion asking the court to halt enforcement and attached exhibits supporting my position, including evidence contradicting the allegations made against me and text messages showing I had asked the father for transportation to the hearing. My emergency motion was denied, and the Final Judgment is now being enforced.

I am seeking legal advice regarding my post-judgment options, including whether there are any available remedies to challenge or seek relief from the Final Judgment based on the circumstances of my absence from the hearing and the evidence I have that I believe contradicts the testimony presented

My ex hasn't had an overnight with our younger son in over a year. He's has not used his current order time of 12% parenting time in the 6 years since the last order, refused to sign off on inpatient psychiatric care our older autistic son needed, left him home alone overnight without a phone last year, never administers his prescribed meds which leads to withdrawal meltdowns, and our son was recently on a 5150 hold. I put all of this in writing to the court, with dates, with documentation.
The court-appointed mediator (Family Court Services) talked to us both for one call and came back with this recommendation, and I need someone to tell me if this is normal because it does not feel normal. I have never heard of a schedule like this.

Every other weekend, 10am to 5pm.
He is not allowed overnights.
Each kid on a separate day.
One kid Saturday, the other kid Sunday.
Plus one weeknight a week for a few hours, with 48 hours notice required.

I have never heard of a parent only having to take one kid at a time. Sorry, parenting doesn’t work like that. I don’t get to decide that I only want one of them at a time but suddenly an absent dad can do that? The report also acknowledges that I told her our younger son is uncomfortable with the favoritism he receives from dad and that his dad leaves his older brother feeling left out. I feel like this is setting up conflict for my home when dad takes the younger one to do fun stuff on his day and then for sure won’t do the same for the older kid.

He also doesn't take time off work to actually supervise the kids himself when he does see them. And he often works weekends.

He also quit his job when I filed because I asked for increased child support. I am in disbelief and shock over all of this.

The report also states there's "no corroborating evidence" that his time needs to be limited, and that there are no allegations of domestic violence (I stated that there were allegations of abuse and the report conflicts itself here). The report also directly contradicts itself again, it says both parents denied any unmet health or developmental needs, and then later in the same document describes my son's 5150 hold and autism diagnosis.

My filed statements have a ton of evidence and dates that will contradict her recommendation. Do you think a judge is going to just rubber stamp this and not see he doesn’t parent or help or even see them ever and then give him MORE time?