The mother of my child got wind of my plans to file for sole custody and countered by filing for sole herself. I don't like confrontation and I don't want a fight so I suggested we try and hash out our issues and settle. She agreed and we started negotiating in the presence of lawyers and a mediator. Ideally, we would go back to our one week on, one week off set-up and I thought she would have no problem with that. I was wrong. We were almost settled on all matters and suddenly she changes her mind and wants to go through with trying to get sole. What changed there, I don't know. And then the mediator started to buy her crap about me being an unfit father and, long story short, I had to hand over my daughter to her mother last night and I don't get her back for two weeks. And that hurts and I already miss her like you wouldn't believe.
I know that even otherwise decent people can get very ugly and resort to stupid tricks to get what they want where custody of a child is concerned. I could never be one of those myself because I don't see any outcome as being a "win" in this situation. I just want my girl to be happy and healthy, no matter who she ends up with. But I don't believe for a second that her being with her mother primarily and seeing me only every other weekend is what's best for her. I want to be a part of my daughter's life and I don't understand how anyone could think that's a bad thing. I could never put her in a position that would endanger her. That kid has never even had a scratch on her.
As much as I miss my girl, I also feel very angry about the entire situation. Primarily because it's become apparent that someone is feeding my ex information about me and my plans. And I don't know who it is. We don't have many friends in common and I don't tell anything to the ones we do share. There are maybe five people I tell everything about my life to and I know that none of them would ever do anything to hurt me. But I'm thinking maybe the leak isn't coming from my friends. I hate to think this but I feel like the most likely culprit is a cousin with whom I have an on and off relationship with. He's made no secret that he doesn't like the way I live my life and he thinks I'm too lenient with my kid. My daughter is very well behaved so I don't know why he thinks what he does, but I haven't cared about his opinions for awhile now. I just don't want to believe he would do this to me. It's none of his business to begin with but to give someone you know wants to take my kid away information that helps them accomplish that goal...how could you do that to anyone? Even if I hated him with all my being, I would never be able to intentionally hurt him. But I think that's why we've never gotten along for more than five minutes at a time. We think very differently. I don't understand how he can treat the people he loves so cold as much as he doesn't understand the way I live my life.
