Father Wins Joint Custody in Contentious Divorce From Narcissistic Mother

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that can result in victims questioning their sense of reality. As family law attorneys, we encounter clients whose spouses have deliberately disoriented, belittled, and humiliated them to control them. 

It can take clients years to recognize the situation for what it is: Psychological abuse. However, having a child with an abusive spouse can serve as a reality check for victims. After all, no one wants their child used as a pawn in an elaborate game of marital chess. 

This scenario was familiar to one of our clients – a relatively new father whose wife would play mind games with him, using their toddler as leverage. Once our client caught onto the patterns in his wife’s behavior, he began documenting the abuse. 

Of grave concern to our client was how far his wife would go to keep him away from their son, even while the family still lived in the same home. Micromanaging our client’s interactions with his child devolved into his wife sequestering herself in different parts of their home. During these fraught periods of self-imposed sequestration, she always kept the toddler with her. 

His wife’s abuse took an emotional toll, escalating to the point where our client was afraid to spend any time at all with his child. Recognizing it was time to seek legal services, he turned to Robinson & Henry for support.

Our client’s written accounts of the abuse proved instrumental in helping him achieve equal parenting time as an outcome of his divorce. By demonstrating the depths of his wife’s manipulation, our family law team was able to negotiate a comprehensive settlement, including the property division she contested every step of the way. 

Now that our client has the law on his side, he can focus on his child and start healing from his ex-wife’s manipulative mind games.