ok 2 things.
1. you organise mediation, it will fail, you then apply to court for parenting orders. That will take a few weeks.
2. You don't try to use the system.... See the bit you wrote about getting the kids on the avo to put you in the "best position to get a fair custody agreement ". That is where you went wrong. Now you're in a situation where the gloves are off and you have a s**t storm of a fight ahead of you.
So you're going to be off to court - You can continue along the path you've started and gee hasn't that worked out well for you? OR you can learn from this.... "best interest of the child" Get pen and paper and write that out 500 times. Seriously, learn it. So you can go to family court - you can try to prove that the ex is a liar, a cheat, sexist, racist, violent, drunk blah blah... And you will be successful. But you will fail. WHAT? yeah sure made a good case to prove the ex is this or that. BUT in family court your objective is to prove that you're a good dad and that it is "in the best interest of the child" to have a meaningful relationship with you...
The saddest cases I've seen are the ones where mum and dad are stupid and use the kids, manipulate, lie etc and where the parents hate for each other causes them to do what ever they can to manipulate the legal system. Stuff like - getting the kids protected on an avo to be in the "best position to get a fair custody agreement". Yeah, I'm talking about you...
Why are these cases the saddest? Well in some cases the judge has to make a call. The judge realises that it is not "in the best interest of the child" to have to bounce from this house to that house with two parents who are so engrossed in their hatred of the other person that it impacts on the child and as such the judge makes the call that one parent needs to be removed from the child's life. Have a read of the article I've linked below... This bit should scare you "In a relatively small minority of cases, a decision to cease trying to enforce contact may be best for a child." Like I said, in some cases one parent just gets removed from the life of the child. Now, I dont like to gamble, but if you wanted to put $5 on who is likely to get removed from the child's life in this case - My $5 is on you...
Return to AIFS seminar Parental alienation, contact problems and the Family Justice System - Monday 20 February 2012.AIFS Seminar SeriesProfessor Nick BalaChair: Daryl Higgins, Australian Institute of Family StudiesParental Alienation, Contact Problems and the Family Justice SystemProf.
aifs.gov.au