Help! Have an urgent question!

[tpaschal]

So we went to mediation on Wednesday afternoon, and basically, I got screwed. Oh, not as bad as some people I know, but bad enough.

I mean, the L and the mediator kept telling me it was a better deal than what I would get from a judge, and I'm thinking......Really? Then why the h*ll did I spend so much time the past year, especially the past several months, gathering info. for the L, going over all H's bills and credit card statements with a fine tooth comb, gathering evidence about how much debt he's gotten into and how much money he's wasted, etc., etc. Why did I bother to work out a financial statement for myself and the kids showing what our projected expenses are and will be in the future? Why did I bother to come up with a proposed division of debts and assets?

The whole divorce/legal system sucks. Big time.

How is it possible in this day and age that the laws are still skewed so badly in favor of the man? Or at least toward the party that has the most money? Shouldn't it be skewed in favor of the children? Why is it that they (men OR women) get to create these wonderful children, then go off and seemingly forget they exist?

How is it possible that Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness take precedence over taking care of your children? What about the kids' right to Life and the Pursuit of Happiness? (We'll talk about Liberty when they're 18!! lol.)

How is it right that he has 6 times the earning ability that I do, based on our respective college/med. school degrees, that he was married to me for 19 years and we have three children together, that he spent all that we had saved on a 20 yr. old wh*re and on his own selfish wants, and yet now they won't make him pay even 10% of his yearly income to his kids? We're four people, 3 if you only count the kids, and he's just 1 person. He's not remarried yet (obviously), he has no other children, so how the hell can the courts say they can't force him to pay any more than that because he has a right to make a living?

EXCUSE ME??? I'm so disgusted. And I'm even more disgusted at his woman lawyer who was a party to all of this, and the woman judge who everyone said would have given me a worse deal than the crap one I got from H.