Chapter 18 - The Custody Evaluation
Dr. Price’s final report was long.
Painful.
Balanced.
Me:
Primary attachment.
Consistent medical/school care.
Protective response.
Concern:
Physical retaliation against Agatha.
Tendency toward emotional overinvolvement and difficulty tolerating Benson’s distress.
Improving through treatment.
Stellan:
Strong attachment.
History of meaningful parenting.
Serious lapse in judgment by authorizing punitive food rules and allowing Agatha to become de facto disciplinarian.
Deceptive custody documentation.
Improving insight.
Job restructuring.
Parenting therapy.
Agatha:
No unsupervised caregiving recommended.
Then recommendation:
Primary physical residence with me during school year.
Stellan step-up to alternating weekends plus one midweek dinner, eventually overnight if continued progress.
Joint legal custody may resume gradually except I retain final authority over medical/therapeutic decisions for twelve months due past discipline conflict.
No Agatha unsupervised contact.
Future grandparent contact only with therapist/parent agreement.
No parent may use food as behavioral punishment.
No parent may discuss custody litigation with Benson.
That sounded fair.
I wanted more control.
May you like
Fear.
But fair.
