Chapter 23 - THE COURT DOES NOT FIX A FAMILY
Elise received expanded therapeutic contact.
Then unsupervised day visits.
Not immediate overnights.
Not custody reversal.
Daniel retained primary residential parenting status initially because Ava’s entire life—school, friends, activities—was stable there and Elise’s relationship needed rebuilding.
Ava complained.
“I thought truth mattered.”
“It does,” I said.
“Then why doesn’t Mom get half?”
“Because courts don’t use truth like a prize.”
She hated that answer.
So did I.
Elise accepted gradual change.
That helped more than outrage would have.
Daniel was ordered to participate in co-parenting counseling and refrain from disparaging either Elise or me to Ava.
Could an order change personality?
No.
It created boundaries.
Documentation.
Consequences for violations.
May you like
Sometimes law is not healing.
It is fencing around places where people keep walking off cliffs.
