“It is like a fight for survival. You are anxious most of the times, because you don’t know what will be the next move. Will the court grant him custody even though they are saying they don’t want to live with him? How would I survive this? How can I live without my children? These are the questions that would keep going through my mind.
“Sometimes I would wish they could become 18 and then there can be no more court story, but then if it happens too quickly I would miss out so much of their lives. To put it mildly, it is like daily torment.”
Jane (not her real name) was introduced to me through an acquaintance. For the past two years she has been going through the system (the Child Care and Protection Agency and the judiciary) in an ongoing battle for custody of her teenage sons. The battle was initiated by the father of the children, whom she said, initially had no care about the children’s upbringing. “I used to have to beg this man to even play a part in the children’s life. Let’s not talk yet about his lack of financial assistance. For their sake, I used to beg this man to just show some concern. They would ask questions about him and it became more and more difficult for me to answer,” Jane related.
