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Court here we go again

Mumof8's picture

For five years we have been locked in a legal battle.  BM first married a guy for a week, had it annulled,  the. There was husband number three.  A man with a volatile temper.  He broke a tv in front of the kids by slamming it to the ground repeatedly, and spanked the oldest SS so hard he kicked him back in the genitals to get away.  Then (while still married to number three) she starts dating a convicted sex offender, and with every new love interest there is a paycheck and a move for the Steps.  That was just in a year and a half.  In that amount of time, there was eleven daycares and 7 school moves.  When DH found out about the convicted sex offender boyfriend he got a RO preventing her from taking them around him.  A year later the four year old says he's been sodomized.  Her answer was to support said sex offender and state he only wanted to have anal sex with little girls, not boys and he was going through a difficult divorce.  Five years later she convinced the kids they will lose her if they say anything, and also that they lied.  Well, after winning the right to have them around him (because Utah is a state of rampant child molesters and those that accommodate them), she breaks up before the custody evaluator can meet him, and four months later the steps are meeting boyfriend number 20+? since the divorce 7 years ago. Why are we going to court?  To continue the custody evaluation caused by her relationship to the peadoohile.  She also wants mediation.  Why?  Because her oldest was late 7 times (several of those were on her), and the other kids were late half of that.  She wants to determine schools so she can chase her latest meal ticket across the countryside and drag the kids behind her.  Ugh.  So fed up with this BS.  So sick of her crap.  This is five years of stuff that to anyone NOT looking at her through male want to get laid eyes would be a no brainer.  Hmmm.  No stable home (except her parents), No stable relationship.  No stable involvement.   Likes to date abusers who molest or hurt kids.  Gee, maybe Mommy should have supervised visitation or minimal contact, but not in UTAH!!  Look at her she's wearing LDS underwear after she slept with that married guy, her parents donate to the church, she cleans up so well, she can't possibly be a narcissist mom with severe borderline personality disorder.  Moms dont sell their kids!  Moms don't put their kids in danger for money.  Utah is delusional.  Ugh.  I didn't sign up for this.  No one warned me that she was a leunatic that she would be hell bent on making my life hell.  That every Mother's Day would be papers served.  That every Christmas would be a battlefield.  This is such bs.  Fed up SO MUCH!!!

Comments

Mumof8's picture

How do you give up on children?  Believe me, there are plenty of times I dream about it.  There are moments I long for a break, but how can I or anyone do that?  What good comes from it?

lieutenant_dad's picture

Not bleeding yourselves dry. Not giving BM the opportunity to shape up JUST enough that she gets the kids back. Not ruining yourselves physically, emotionally, and financially so you can't help the kids.

It's not an easy decision to not take the court route, but if all court does is drain your money for no extra time with the kids or a change in custody - or anything - then at some point going becomes detrimental to everyone involved.

Sometimes it's better to let BM do stupid shyte, call CPS and the cops, and let those wheels of progress handle it for you. I hate to say it, but so long as you and DH keep fighting her for custody, the court will continue to allow this to happen because they see you two as a "watchdog" over the kids who won't let anything happen. When you drop the reins and give it to the criminal courts versus the family courts, it sometimes speeds up the process of getting kids out of crappy situations.

It's super broken, but the court system is set up so that a child HAS to get hurt - repeatedly - and the culprit ends up in criminal court before they do anything.

At this point, you're just paying for your attorney's next suit.

tog redux's picture

Perfectly said.  I don't mean to give up on the kids, just give up on court giving you any "justice" or doing right by the kids.  Keep your custody time as best you can, be the best role models you can be for the kids, and enforce any legal measures on BM that are available.

When women like BM are in court, they tend to do "better" so they don't lose their kids, and they also put a lot of pressure on those kids to "take their side" and say bad things about the other parent.  Release that pressure on the kids.

Ruining yourselves financially and with stress won't help the kids.  There is no justice in Family Court.

Mumof8's picture

It made me cry, but I understand.  We actually did have Cps involved.  They told us to pursue court.  They told us to get them in counseling.  That was in 2014.  Then it was their report which we couldn't get that allowed the pedophile near the kids.  It said that while there was concern that the youngest SS had been sodomized there was no physical proof because he didn't tell us until three days after we had him back from her extended parent time.  It also said that because the other SS who witnessed and reported said he saw it happen through a house window and because they couldn't locate a window it must be a fabrication.  Therapist told us at the time that kids watching traumatic events happening to them or others can see it on a tV screen or through a window because of mental protection mechanisms.  BM waited four years (telling us and the courts that they broke up, they were engaged, whatever fit the current court atmosphere) and then had them tell a counselor that she was taking them to without informing us or our participation that I!! I was the one who told them that BM boyfriend was a bad man.  That he thought her boyfriend was great, but that then I told him all of this stuff about him trying to have sex with a nine year old girl.  I have never felt so frustrated, devestated, and betrayed.  For the record, I and DH obtained the criminal charges against said boyfriend two years after the allegations were made, and had a physical copy at the house, and because the eleven year old snoops for BM he found the paperwork three years after the allegations made by the four year old and because BM assured the courts and  everyone that her and her sex offender registry Bf were over, when he asked me if what he saw on the charges was true I said yes buddy, and explained the difference between a sting operation and someone's word against someone else.  Her BF was part of a sting and had other charges.  The youngest SS wouldn't say anything to the counselor and she used both of those things to say it was some sort of set up.  The fact that at the time the court appointed GAL said there was no coercion or the fact that they described in unbelievable detail a sexual assault, and that the report said that while no physical evidence was found (or looked for) his statements and subsequent behavior issues couldn't  allow abuse to be ruled out was inconsequential to a court full of men looking at this Mom HELL bent on being with this man.  Moms don't put their kids in harms way.  He must really be innocent is how they see it.    Why was she so determined to be with this man?  "Because he is an upstanding business man who earns a good living, and owns a house."  After he was given rights to be near the kids in therapeutic settings, I found out he doesn't own his business or his house his parents do.  When I let this slip to DH in front of SS (on accident he was supposed to be sleeping not outside our bedroom door yet again spying)  BM decided that relationship was over.  LOL!  Now we are on move in boyfriend/paycheck #5  and he has military benefits and is quite a bit older than her.  I don't feel CPS in Utah or the PD is going to do much for us either.  In Utah, she would have to be caught on camera lighting meth for them and then taking money and watching while they were sodomized to have any real threat of loss of custody, and even that is stretching it, because the minute she did rehab or something she'd be right back in their lives.  

 

lieutenant_dad's picture

I understand you so very much. Read up on some of my previous blogs about my SSis. It did ZERO good to go through family court until she effed up enough that she got arrested.

BM here dated a man that we later found out was a sex offender. The only reason we found out was because she had dumped him and he started dating my mom's best friend's son's new XW. He tried through family court to get the kids away from him. The only thing that worked (until she moved to the middle of nowhere) was for Dad to call the Sheriff's Office, who called the XW's new BF's probation officer, who dragged his rear end out of the county. She was faced with CPS, and she left town so that the case would be dropped.

Iamwoman has dealt with abusive BS from her XH on her daughter. Find her blogs and read them. She provides some good insight on what she did to end the abuse by XH and fee her daughter.

Just keep filing reports when it is warranted, getting kids into therapy when they are with you, and keeping them safe when you can. The courts are rarely your friend, so don't spend your money unless it's going to actually help you.

Mumof8's picture

Re read your comment some time later and wanted to say THANK YOU!!!  You are right, family court is a waste of time and money.  Even in cases where a Mom takes their kids into Meth labs the courts only remove their rights for a short time.  It is pathetic.  Especially in Utah.  Putting my energy and time into something I can make a difference with and that is my own kids and myself.  Thanks for the brutally honest response.  It really helped as I have pondered things.

Harry's picture

Most likely these kids are screw up for life. The Family courts don’t want to be involved.  Nothing your DH can do. These kids need to spend in a residential treatment hospital.

 Don’t think you getting custody, of these kids is going to be roses and gunny bears. They will destroy your marrage 

justmakingthebest's picture

OMG... I am so sorry. The family courts are so screwed up... It looks like no end in site. Even after they are 18 there will be so much baggage with kids that she is damaging... it will never end.

tog redux's picture

Yes, even though my DH dropped the rope and stopped fighting in court, my SS18 is so damaged and alienated it's impossible to have a real relationship with him. All that money spent to no avail.

Mumof8's picture

About your experiences.  Alienated?  What should we do differently?  Please, any advice would be gratefully accepted.

tog redux's picture

Parental alienation.  My SS was alienated from DH for 3.5 years. He refused all visitation from ages 15-18 and was either nasty or hostile to DH, or ignored him. He is completely enmeshed with BM and has lied on her behalf repeatedly in the court process.  He resumed his relationship with DH recently, after BM filed a petition for more child support and help with college. 

He is still 100% loyal to BM and his relationship with DH is superficial. He lies and cheats and takes no ownership for his own crappy behavior.  He accepts no parenting from DH, and is currently not speaking to him again.  In short, he's just like his mother.

Mumof8's picture

SS age 11 has stolen for her and for himself since age 5.  She encourages the behavior because they are minors and if the get caught she pretends to chastise them.  He is also extremely manipulative, cunning, and cruel.  The opposite side of that is the side I have tried to nurture.  It took ages to teach him any kind of empathy, but it is a rarely seen in him.  He is utterly cruel most days.  A teacher praised him helping a disabled child up who had fallen, at recess and then I get told by his sister that he was the one that knocked them down in the first place.  SS8 steals as well now and has stabbed classmates with pens and pencils while BM was with him.  She does nothing.  I hate their mean natures because I know where that use and abuse attitude was learned.  I am starting to realize that Nature May have far more to do with a child's behavior than nurture.  They are her miniature male mirror images.  It's so sad.

ProbablyAlreadyInsane's picture

I can't offer much on this. It's frustrating. But I can tell you it's not just Utah in any way shape or form.... Lots of states are "pro-mommy.' Hence why Psycho gets unsupervised visitation after the he!! she's put the girls through and ocntinues to pull them through...

Courts are sympathetic to BMs... Because they "have rights." It's a double standard virtually everywhere you go. And it sucks a$$ to watch.

I feel awful for those kids. They don't have a real chance.

Mumof8's picture

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing something similar.  Most days there is no worse situation or job in the world.  My heart goes out to you and your kiddos.  I hope that we all can find peace somehow in the future.