Brief history: we've been together many years and have a 3 year old daughter. There has always been a power struggle with us, him coming from a family with a very abusive father. There has recently been quite a bit of emotional and mental abuse, with one episode of physical violence against me. On average the physical violence only occurred 1-2 times a year.
We are planning on going to mediation to try to settle our issues first. For me the priority is to get a formal parenting plan and schedule set for our daughter. When we argue he is constantly trying to change things in order to hurt me or take control (he threatened to change the schedule we had been following for a month and a half since this began so that she would not be with me on the day our family was celebrating her birthday!! He came to his sense though)
I know that the balance of power seems to be with him, but I am a very strong negotiatior when it comes to legal issues and feel I might be able to hold my own with the help of a mediator. For now it seems that we both have her best interests at heart and are working quite well together.
I would like to know if anyone has any experience with mediation when there was some power imbalance like this. Did it work? Did you bring a lawyer? I know mediation is not recommended, but I am a strong person and despite his behaviour I have been able to hold my own against him even when stressed.
I just need some solid advice here. Also, I need to know what specific things are best to include in the agreement. The more detailed it gets for us, the less chance he will be able to manipulate it!
THANKS!
We are planning on going to mediation to try to settle our issues first. For me the priority is to get a formal parenting plan and schedule set for our daughter. When we argue he is constantly trying to change things in order to hurt me or take control (he threatened to change the schedule we had been following for a month and a half since this began so that she would not be with me on the day our family was celebrating her birthday!! He came to his sense though)
I know that the balance of power seems to be with him, but I am a very strong negotiatior when it comes to legal issues and feel I might be able to hold my own with the help of a mediator. For now it seems that we both have her best interests at heart and are working quite well together.
I would like to know if anyone has any experience with mediation when there was some power imbalance like this. Did it work? Did you bring a lawyer? I know mediation is not recommended, but I am a strong person and despite his behaviour I have been able to hold my own against him even when stressed.
I just need some solid advice here. Also, I need to know what specific things are best to include in the agreement. The more detailed it gets for us, the less chance he will be able to manipulate it!
THANKS!
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