sland said:
Thank you for responding and I appreciate the honesty. He is bipolar and does not take his medications- if he did things would be a lot better. I have text messages that he has sent me stating he knows he is acting mean because he is not taking his medications. We also went to marriage counseling when our youngest was about 3 months old. The counsler recommended that I give up on the marriage and go to a womens shelter because my husband would never change and could become violent from what she has seen. I can get a letter from her but would that even help in court or even be admissable? Also this morning he did not have to be at work until 11:30. He woke up at 8:00 took a shower and the kids asked him to play with him. I asked him what time he had to leave for work and he said 11:30 and then he told the kids he did not want to play and left while our middle one was crying for him. However he did tell them that he would try to play with them next week and he just did not want to be around me. I said I would leave the house and he could have the kids to himself or he could take the kids to the park. He said he did not want to. I said the kids needed him and he said oh well. My question is should I be writing this stuff down on a calendar for court or does it even matter. Thanks again
He could argue that counseling falls under privilege however there is a strong argument that it is not privileged because it is extremely relevant information, the counselor has spoken to him as well and observed things. Whether or not the counselor would testify (a LETTER WILL NOT WORK!) is another story.
As for this morning -- single incident does not matter. Again you would probably get primary custody but dad has a right unless proven unfit to joint custody. Unless he agrees to something else. Record everything though and you might eventually gather enough. text messages you would have to prove were typed by him, from him and what they were in relation to. Again they might be a piece of the puzzle but a small piece -- say one out of 500. Alone it won't mean much.
The other thing about counseling -- you didn't leave and follow the counselor's recommendations. Hence, you didn't take her seriously and the argument could be made that if you didn't take it seriously why should the court?