What advice would you give someone before a divorce, if it’s known it may happen and you’re not in the wrong?
This is a very important question that too few people ask.
Does this sound familiar?:
- Your spouse is making false allegations against you. No evidence to support them, yet the police and the courts and child protective services are swallowing it all.
- You keep asking when justice will be done, when you will be vindicated.
- You keep wondering when things would get back to “normal”.
- In the back of your mind you are certain that one day things will indeed get back to normal
- Odds are they won’t. Especially while your kids are minors.
- But surely things can’t stay this crazy and out of whack forever, right?
- Wrong.
- Things will likely get better but will likely never “go back to normal.”
- We don’t blame you for thinking we’re exaggerating. The idea that innocence counts for next to nothing is unthinkable. Too terrible to believe. As is the idea that people can slander you with impunity while the police and the courts stand by and either let it happen or even it help it happen. Believe it. It’s true.
- No really, it’s true.
- The words of this real divorced spouse and parent sum things up concisely and accurately: I kept wondering when things would get back to normal. I soon realized through brutal experience that it never will, as long as I have kids with my ex that are minors. Or if I am ever around my alone (meaning no other witness could confirm her false claims are exactly that, false). I can’t ever go back to life as it was before divorce. My rose colored glasses are broken forever, The days of not worrying about someone making things up to punish me in divorce or criminal court or DCFS are no more. The “child-like faith” I once had in our legal system is lost for all time, never to return.
- You can deny it all you want, but it will do you and your kids no good and only lead to more harm and being victimized more, if you bury your head in the sand or in the clouds. That will only add repeated and more severe injury to what started out as insult.
- We know what you are hoping for, and you’re not there yet. You likely won’t be for much longer time than you think is realistic or fair.
- Will the day soon come when you can stop worrying about protecting yourself from false allegations or complaints from your ex? No.
- In fact, that day may never come.
- We know people for whom it’s been years, in some cases more than a decade, and still, to this day the ex cannot be trusted to be decent.
- You have to cautious and careful in the event that the snake that bit you once (or dozens of times) before might try to bite you again.
- We know it’s exhausting and actually driving you near insane (we really do).
- But you must stay vigilant.
- You must stay classy. And stay frosty. You must. It’s either stay frosty, stay classy, or be crushed. Crushed emotionally, financially, etc.
- An ounce of prevention truly is worth several hundred or several thousand pounds of cure.
- We understand you’re not happy about this.
- Still, knowing is half the battle. Forewarned is forearmed.
- Staying blissfully ignorant won’t do you any good and can do you permanent damage.
- Divorce and false claims of child and spousal and substance abuse, etc. are more prevalent than you think because nobody wants to believe it will happen to them. And those who are victimized are often too embarrassed and depressed to talk openly and honestly about it. Can you blame them?
- That’s it. No easy solutions. No cheap assurances. But ignore this information, warnings, and protective measures at your peril.
Hang in there. Heed this crucial advice: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277