Seeing Both Sides - A Challenge

Had an irate e-mail from a former client, who is now in litigation with her husband and was feeling (retroactively) that I was not neutral, but was instead biased in favor of her husband.

They were in litigation before they came to seem me – and came in for 6 hours of mediation, to try to settle their differences – but ended up back in litigation.

People often do feel that I’m ‘on their side.’  But what they don’t always see is that I’m also on the other person’s side.

In this case, the father really wanted more time with the child, and I was certainly sympathetic to that.  The latest research shows, very clearly, that children who have good relationships with their fathers do fantastically better, in school and in life, than do children who have been cut out of their father’s lives (or abandoned by fathers).

In fact – even for children whose fathers just walked them to school on Mondays after week-ends – or fathers who attended parent-teacher conferences but otherwise never set foot in the school – get a much clearer message that their parents both  feel that school is important.  A little bit of dad goes a long way.

But – on the other hand – this guy was a kind of a loose cannon.  He’d had his driver’s license suspended for speeding, and had in addition had several accidents, and he did not want to agree not to have the child in the car while he drove.  He wasn’t even supposed to drive at all – no license!  I tried to make him see that that wouldn’t go over too well with a judge, and he really didn’t get it.

(Was this narcissism – nothing I do can be wrong?  Or stupidity.  I don’t know – but came to the same thing – that dad might not have been a safe person for that kid to be with.) 

Anyway – I reminded the wife of these things, and assured her that I had seen them – and she felt reassured that I was also “on her side.”

Protecting Children From Conflict & Self-Blame

I was watching a movie the other night, (Future Weather) in which a 13-year-old girl came home from school and found a note from her mother saying, “I went to California.  I left $50 in the drawer for you, for groceries.” 

The girl lived in the house for a few days by herself, until her grandmother discovered her living alone, so she moved to her grandmother’s home.

Later in the film, she and her grandmother were bickering, and the grandmother said, “You know your mother wanted to get an abortion.  Yup, she wanted to get rid of you, and I said to her, ‘over my dead body.’  Serves me right, now I’m stuck with you.  What goes around comes around.”

This is one of the most horrible things I have ever heard someone say to a child!  This child will never forget that statement, and never be rid of the feeling that she is the cause of all of the troubles of the adults in her life, she is the reason that her mother left to go to California.

I thought about my clients, who work so hard to protect their children from the conflicts between them, and who want their children to come through the divorce with as few scars as possible.  I thought about the Child’s Bill of Rights, which I put into every agreement: 

a.   The right not to be asked to “choose sides” between the Parents.

b.  The right not to be told the details of fights between the Parents.

c.  The right not to be told “bad things” about the other Parent’s personality or character.

d.  The right to privacy when communicating with either Parent.

e.  The right not to be cross-examined by one Parent after spending time with the other Parent.

f.  The right not to be a messenger from one Parent to the other.

g.  The right not to be asked by one Parent to tell the other Parent untruths.

h.  The right not to be used as a confidant regarding the difficult issues between the Parents.

i.  The right to express feelings, whatever those feelings may be, or to choose not to express certain feelings.

j.  The right not to be made to feel guilty for loving both Parents, or for developing a loving relationship with a new partner of either Parent.

Many of the parents I see are distraught over the pain their children will suffer, as a result of the divorce but – boy, it could always be worse.

(PS – the film did end on a higher note, with some hope.)

Sensitivity & Pain

One of the most painful issues that I see, among divorcing couples, is the tendency to self-blame, to a fault.  Meaning – that 1 person says something that might be innocent – or might even be a fact – and the other person hears it as SEARING criticism.

For example – “I am a teacher, so I can be with our child at 3pm.  On your nights he is not with you until 6pm.”

This is a factual statement.  The 6pm parent practically burst into tears, hearing it as an accusation of not being a dedicated, caring parent.

I guess we are all hypersensitive when it comes to comments of our spouses - and even more so, when the relationship has deteriorated to the point of breaking up.

I always feel – speechless – at these moments.  My goal, during mediation, is to bring that dynamic to their attention. 

“Wow, so it sounded to me as if you felt like M—was saying that you are a less-involved parent.”

“yes, he/she was saying that,” will reply the upset parent.

“M—were you trying to say that?”

Usually M—will respond with – ‘absolutely not, I know that you are a completely committed and involved parent, in fact a great parent to our child.’

How painful to be in a relationship where you are so often wounded by the other – whether or not the other has not been intending to wound you.  Probably leading to the breakdown of the relationship.  

We are all happiest in relationships where we like ourselves, we like the person we feel that we are, when with the other person - and who wants to be a person who constantly hurts our lover?