Wife got a DUI with my 7yo son in the car

Old 04-26-2015, 08:49 PM
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I am beyond sorry Scubadad. What you're going through is AWFUL. Unfortunately your posting goes to prove the theory of "what is there before the addiction will still be there afterwards." some of us "A's" are decent human beings but others have problems whether they be personality disorders, or various other issues such as depression, etc. Those issues need to be treated as well but an "A" will only get help for those if they recognize them and take action-thats out side of your hula hoop so to speak. Good mojo vibes for keeping your sanity in check as you deal with this mess.
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Old 04-26-2015, 11:04 PM
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I certainly can feel for what you are going thru ... my daughter also drinks and drives with my 2 precious Grandchildren. SHe just recently moved here with us from Florida ..and my friend that drove the U- haul for her, said she drank all the way .. had a jug of wine in her car .. drank it all within the day of driving !!!! I wish I would have know I would've called and reported her .. then this nightmare would be well on a healthier journey also

She drinks every day ... have NO idea how she has managed up to this point .. she is soo stressed and so full of bursts of anger !!! So incredibly sad ... MANY MANY prayers for my precious grandchildren .... I love them sooo much ...
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Old 04-27-2015, 06:12 AM
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ScubaDad, the best thing you can do in my experience is request a guardian ad litem to come in and survey the situation and make a recommendation to the court independently of you two and your lawyers. If I were you, I wouldn't ask for 50/50, I would ask for 100% full custody and let the chips fall as they may, even if it means disappointing your ex. Someone pulling this stuff isn't capable of being an emotionally capable parent. A guardian ad litem will interview you both, take a look at the evidence, and tell the court what they find. If, for example, the GAL thinks your wife needs to complete a treatment program or have a psychiatrist make a recommendation as to her mental health, she will have to fulfill that requirement, as will you if asked of you. My ex, for example, was asked to fulfill a short list of requirements in order to have unsupervised visitation with our daughter. He was unable to fill any of them in a six week period, which showed the court he was still using and was unable to handle an active toddler, especially if he couldn't fulfill simple administrative tasks. In my experience, this is the cleanest way of determining who is where and what each parent is capable of.

To me, if you need to prove to the court that your ex be crazy, hand her a microphone.
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Old 04-27-2015, 09:52 AM
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ScubaDad: I read your posting/story today and my heart just breaks for you. It sounds like you did the best you could for you, your children and your wife at the time. You don't have a crystal ball that would predict the future (wish we had one of those). It makes me sick in my stomach to think of what she is saying/doing with your children when you are not there...I hope she is not talking bad about you to them...that only hurts the kids...
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Old 04-27-2015, 10:12 AM
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Originally Posted by LoveMeNow View Post
Please don't excuse her cheating and blame it on her drinking. They are two separate issues.
Is this true?

I am only curious because so many of the posts I have been reading recently the two seem to go hand in hand.

What do you all think?

Still no excuse though.
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Old 04-27-2015, 10:15 AM
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Originally Posted by ScubaDad View Post
I agree SisterBobby, I should have left her in jail. I know that now but at the time I was still in denial about who she really was. I know there is no way I could have handled this differently. I did what I thought was right and I will never have to think "what if?". I did what she should be doing now, I acted like a human being and tried to save my family. She is an alcoholic and probably mentally unbalanced. She may never be able to see how bad of a person she is. I know I did what was right and if she had an ounce of worth she would have appreciated it and never stopped repaying our family for all of us sticking by her. But she didn't and there is nothing I can do about that.

I now know without a doubt that she is not worth any amount of my effort. I think there is a very good chance that she will relapse. There is no way she is working her 12-step program with the kind of hateful behavior that she is demonstrating now. There is no "rigorous honesty" in her actions at all. It is 100% selfish. I think she will relapse and go down even farther than she did before. I will never help her in any way for any thing. She needs to learn how to handle her own life without me there to financially fix any mistakes. She is 44yo and can't seem to figure any of that out. I predict in a year she will either remarry and take that person's money or be on the street. It is all so pathetic.
So sorry!
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Old 04-27-2015, 10:17 AM
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carmenlove, I think cheating and drinking go hand in hand also, I know people get mad when I say that, but I havent met an alcoholic who hasn't cheated.
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Old 04-27-2015, 10:24 AM
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Daydreams and Carmen- not all of us recovering alcoholics cheat. As I have said before

Cheaters are cheaters
Abusers are abusers
Jerks are jerks

Remove the alcohol and those traits will still be there.
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Old 04-27-2015, 10:53 AM
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Originally Posted by daydreamer0217 View Post
carmenlove, I think cheating and drinking go hand in hand also, I know people get mad when I say that, but I havent met an alcoholic who hasn't cheated.
I have actually known many.

I've known many, many more non-cheating alcoholics/addicts than those that do cheat. (and if I sit down & count the number of alcoholics I know/have personally known in my life we're talking easily 40-50 people, likely more. I don't mean people I "know of" but people I've had personal relationships of all kinds with. I have dealt with addiction in almost every KIND of relationship in my life with the exception of my child & my sibling - parent, boss, friends, coworkers, relatives, etc. ) Only the cheaters cheat, like Happy stated.

I've found that even with addiction, absolutes simply don't work. Nothing is "always" or "never".
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Old 04-27-2015, 11:03 AM
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just my observation, maybe I know the wrong people LOL
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Old 04-27-2015, 11:05 AM
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Originally Posted by daydreamer0217 View Post
carmenlove, I think cheating and drinking go hand in hand also, I know people get mad when I say that, but I havent met an alcoholic who hasn't cheated.
I am an RA and I never cheated in any of my relationships. My XABF was many things (including abusive) but was not a cheat. My last relationship with someone who was neither an alcoholic nor abusive ended when I found out he had a hoochie on the side and had been cheating on me for quite some time. It was absolutely devastating for me.

Scubadad I am sorry for the situation
I also feel that you should try to get full custody of the kids. Her DUI not so long ago with your child in the car has to be documented somewhere and it is not about "fighting dirty" it is about ensuring the future safety of your kids.
She might not be drinking (although you never know and she might have switched to popping pills or whatever) but she is still acting out and obviously not stable and not willing to take a brutal honest look at herself and hold herself accountable for her actions.
Statistically, only 5-10% of alcoholics recover meaning that she has a high chance of drinking again.
I think it is good that you are carrying with you a video camera and I also hope that you document all the instances when you come into the house and there is no food or TP for the kids.

Hang in there.

PS: for anyone who wonder about my use of "hoochie":
a hoochie is someone who knows the man has a partner and does not care unlike the "other woman" who is just someone who got conned by the cheater and bought into his lies.
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Old 04-27-2015, 01:23 PM
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Wow Scuba dad, your wife never had these behaviors before? Hammer here knew his wife was BPD. You might find his threads somewhat helfpul as he often commented that the rehab took away the alcohol but left the BPD untreated...

Below is a link to a mental health website I find useful.

Out of the FOG - Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
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Old 04-27-2015, 01:39 PM
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I agree that you should go for full custody and get a GAL pronto.

Also, document EVERY SINGLE THING. Take photos of going in and there being empty cabinets, no TP, dirty, etc.

The GAL will be there to represent your children only. It's hard telling what all they know. I would also say the courts will not like that she is lying about being employed.

Hugs to you, I am so sorry.
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Old 04-27-2015, 02:30 PM
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I'm so sorry. I hope that in the midst of all of the insanity that you are taking care of yourself. Plenty of rest, food, friends - all that. Glad you are getting quality time with the kiddos, and prayers for a speedy end to the madness!
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Old 04-27-2015, 02:48 PM
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Originally Posted by ScubaDad View Post
Hi all,

I got an update and its not good. My wife filed for divorce about 45 days ago while I was out of town for work. Two days before we were working on a family vacation. She even tried to file a restraining order claiming that I threatened to kill her, committed domestic violence and forced sex on her. All totally false, so much so that the judge banned her attorney from even asking me questions about it once we got to court. But for 31 days I could not get into my house without her calling the police and I only saw my kids for four days out of 31. The police would not stop me from going in my house, but they said "look, all she is going to do is just keep calling us. If you want your kids to watch this kind of stuff then you can keep coming. We can't tell you what to do, but it might be best to get what you need out of the house and leave." All so crazy. Women can make any claim and the police have to take it seriously. I totally understand why, it is just not fair when it is such a lie.

Everything was going good with us until around October/November. She decided to do some "consulting" for free. Pretty crazy huh. I asked her why and she said she wanted to help people. Mind you we are not rich and in no way do we have the money to work for free. I didn't agree with it but I didn't try to stop her. I have been a faithful member of Al Anon and I am working my 12 steps. I know I cannot control another person, I can state my opinion once and leave it at that.

By mid January I started to think that she might be cheating on me again. I sometimes travel for work and when I would be back in town she became less and less available to meet with me for lunch. On the weekends she would go early and stay late at her AA meetings. Many weekends the kids and I would just hang out all morning without her. She stopped going to bed with me, she would fall asleep with the kids and then come in later. Finally our sex life pretty much vanished. It was driving me crazy to think that she would cheat again. I asked my sponsor if I should talk to her about it and he said "why?". I said because it is killing me. He said "all she will do is tell you no, even if she is cheating, she lied to you once why do you think she would ever tell you the truth?". He told me that if God wanted my wife and I to be separate He would show me a sign. I tried to keep my mouth shut but I couldn't take it. I finally asked her in early March. She said no, I told her that if she wanted to be with somebody else to just tell me, give me that dignity. She just walked away. She came back later and said that I torture her with the fact that she cheated on me. I almost never brought it up, and when I did it was because her behaviors would make me think she was cheating again. She asked me if I believe she was, I said no, that I only think she is. She wanted to know what the difference was, I said if I really believed she was then I would just want to be divorced. Seven days later she filed.

For 31 days I could not get in the house. She took all of my belongings and moved them to the basement. If you came in our house you would not even know I lived there. She took all of my clothes and put them in the basement. She took pictures down of me with the kids and put them in the basement. She took our wedding pictures down and threw them in my office on the floor. She canceled my lifelock. She took me off the family membership at the gym. She changed the alarm codes at the house. She put a deadbolt lock on our bedroom door. It was like she was trying to erase me from the earth. It is all so crazy.

The court forced her to let me back in the house. We are doing a thing called "nesting". We rotate in and out of the house while the kids stay in it full time. It is not ideal, but it at least got me out of my parents basement and I get quality time with my kids. When we went to court she brought up all the bs lies where she said I threatened to kill her, committed domestic violence and forced sex on her. When my attorney asked her why she never reported any of this she had no answer. Why not report it while she was in jail, or rehab or with her therapist over the last three years. Nothing. Finally my attorney asked her if she was ever afraid of me. Nope, never. The judge stopped the proceedings and pulled both attorneys aside and told them that they were done with that topic and her attorney was not allowed to ask me one question about it.

Now her plan is to say I am unfit father because I travel for work. How crazy is that. What was I supposed to do. This is the type of work I have been doing for the last 18 years. She knew it when we met. But now it is bad. And it is a battle in court. Her offer for custody was every other weekend and one weekday night. I told them nothing less than 50/50. We are still fighting on it. All because she filed and I was out of town for training. Nothing about he DUI with our son matters, because I did nothing about it back in June of last year. I kick myself for that everyday. I thought I was doing the right thing by trying to help her and keep our family together. I should have left her in jail, filed for divorce and filed a restraining order. But I tried to do a noble thing and it totally backfired. Not a day goes by that I don't think about it.

So now I am stuck waiting for her to do anything about the divorce. I am ready to be done. I just want to be finished with her and this marriage. She refuses to sit down and talk to the kids about it as a family. When I ask her why she said we should have done it on the first day. On that day she was trying to get me falsely arrested. She is so crazy. I don't think she is drinking. I think she is either in a dry drunk or is bi-polar. Either way it is totally crazy. She refuses to do anything. All she does is take the kids to bowling alleys are arcades. She told the court she was working but to my knowledge she is doing nothing. There is no food in our house when I come in. There is no toilet paper. There is no soap. It is nuts. Her dogs is destroying our house. He has dug the carpet down to bare concrete. When I ask her to not allow that she says I am being silly.

The only good thing is that I am having more fun with my kids than I ever had before. We are doing what I want to do and not worrying about her. She would never go and do the fun stuff that we like to do (hiking, zip lines, museums, camping, dinner outside with the dog, walking the dog). She is such a selfish person. I will never understand her.

Keep me in your prayers. I could really use it. If I had one wish it would be to just get this done and start the next chapter in my life.
Hi,

I'm quite new here and so I hadn't seen your story before.

I am so sorry you are going through this.

It sounds like you have a much better life to look forward to and some great kids once you do get through this bit.
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Old 04-27-2015, 05:25 PM
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Hi all, thanks for all of your kind words. My wife never drank much before 2010, she never cheated, she was a devout catholic and I didn't know of any lies at that point. All of this started happening in 2010 and got worse as her disease progressed. I believe that alcoholism is a disease, but I also think it is a symptom of something else. For my wife it might be some mental disorder, I am not a therapist, but I know that her behavior is very odd.

Today we had a meeting with a therapist for our kids. The kids are doing OK. I had to sit in a waiting room with my wife for one hour. That is the most time I have spent with her in almost two months. One kid would go back at a time. While we were waiting the other kid would just sit in my lap or be totally involved with me. I just spent the last four days with them and they would rather sit with me. I don't encourage any of that but I am also not going to push them away from me. When we left my son begged me to go with them in my wife's car. I told him that I couldn't. He asked why. I told him that mommy would not let me. He asked if I could walk him to the car and my wife said no. He was hysterical crying and she just stands there. She is nuts.

I don't think she is drinking or taking drugs. I just think she is nuts.

In court I have asked for 100% custody. So has she. Apparently this is how it works in a high conflict divorce. Her DUI will matter. But so will my traveling for work. It is all so crazy. I do something responsible and that is bad. She does something completely irresponsible and it might be bad. The world is not fair.

Gotta go, I am hitting my 2nd Al Anon meeting in 35 minutes.

Thanks everyone for your kind words.
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Old 04-27-2015, 06:27 PM
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Originally Posted by CarmenLove View Post
Is this true?

I am only curious because so many of the posts I have been reading recently the two seem to go hand in hand.

What do you all think?

Still no excuse though.

I believe alcohol makes you do things impulsively which can lead to cheating. I have done things, like cheating when I was drunk that I would never have done sober. I would sober up the next day, and feel so dirty, and just hate myself, but at the time I didn't think about who I was hurting or the consequences.
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Old 04-27-2015, 08:10 PM
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Scuba dad, your story has been very important to me. Your original post helped keep me sober early on in my sobriety. I'm at 11 mo now. I'm so sorry for what you are going through. You really tried to do the right thing and be forgiving and it's unfortunate that she is throwing away the marriage.
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Old 04-28-2015, 03:55 AM
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I am familiar with a couple that divorced recently with 3 kids and the father DID get Legal and primary custody AND he travels all the time. I can't say that I think his wife had a mental illness (she may have) but she was definitely partying really hard.

This came about due to psychological evaluation I think they both had to submit to it and it took about 4 to 6 months of meetings and testing of them both. The husband had to pay for it because he was claiming her unfit - it was expensive - but it resulted in his favorable custody arrangement.

Wishing you the best with this your wife does sound like she is mentally ill.
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Old 04-29-2015, 09:11 PM
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Hi all,

I am back in the house with the kids tonight. We went out to a Japanese steak house, they love that stuff. The kids are doing great. I love being with them. With the crazy visitation schedule (2nd, 4th and 5th weekend after the first Thursday weekend) I will not get to spend the night with them for two entire weeks. That sucks. But we will be that much closer to the 50/50 split time in the summer. That will be great.

My STBXW is really stepping up her fight game right now. I have been working on really detaching from her and not engaging with her when she wants to fight via texts/emails. It is amazing to watch her come unglued and start trying to argue over anything. When she doesn't get her way she starts to attack or act like a child. When I got to the house tonight she had taken the garage door opener off the wall in the kitchen. I asked her about it and she acted like it never existed. It is so bizarre to have to deal with this kind of stuff. It is actuall helping me to remember why I never want to be in a relationship with her ever again. She wins the award for the crazy person I have ever dealt with. Her mom is nuts, my wife is the one that told me her mom is nuts, and now she is just as nutty as her mom. Very sad stuff to watch someone destroy their life.

Too bad for her, not so bad for me. That is all for now. Kids are fed, bathed, PJs on, stories read and out cold. I bring my Jack Russell, Izzie, with me and she is sleeping with my daughter tonight. The rule is Izzie sleeps with them every other night. It is super cute. Good night everybody. ��
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