I am willing to negotiate custody issues, but I'm not willing to be an "empty suit" when it comes to being a father to my children.
The Christmas custody negotiations have begun. Last year I had DD's for Thanksgiving dinner and WAW had DD's for Christmas dinner. This year WAW had DD's for Thanksgiving dinner and I was making plans to have them for Christmas dinner at 5PM. WAW wants them for Christmas dinner at 6PM.
The schedule is complicated and I'm not going to lay it all out here. My question is this, given that fact that I would rather be negotiating a reconciliation w/WAW (that's why I'm here) and that I want to validate WAW's feelings, how do I respond to this?
Quote: You started it all when you refused to let them stay overnight with me during the week. I have to fight with you to spend equal time with them.
Ouch! From my perspective, the reason that I spend more time w/DD is b/c WAW moved out. DD's don't spend 2 nights a week at WAW's apt, b/c in the beginning they didn't want to and now I feel that it's too much shuffling back and forth. WAW has filed a custody complaint against me.
Obviously WAW is not going to want to come back if her perception is that of having to fight w/me. However since I'm close to delivering a Dobson letter, do I not buffer the results of our separation? Sometimes this is just too hard.
So, any idea's on how to communicate w/ and validate WAW feelings?
