To the Attention of Ms. Valerie Wacks

Ms. Wacks,
This is your client. His name is Garrett. The recent photo is from August, 2011 though you may not recognize this little lad since it has been several months since you have visited him at his father's house. The last recount of you having visited Garrett in my home was ...well, you never have.  Pictured next to this dear boy is me, his mother and the one which you proclaim in a closed-door conference amongst attorneys, that you believe to be "too pretty that (she) thinks she can do whatever she wants".  A most-unprofessional accusation to make, I would have thought you to be of higher moral character than taking cheap and immature shots which can be interpreted (and rightly so) as partisan and subjective.  Though for some time I have thought you to be a impish person with a large, albeit  nonsensical opinion for the disdain of me without due cause - I am again saddened to "need" (use of the word need is being weened from this situation) your loud and obnoxious position within our situation. Why?

Because once again Garrett has climbed into my vehicle at the ending of a ridiculous visitation with Dad, with tears in his eyes. Stifling back his innate reaction to cry, he relays that he has had his things taken from him by Dad and told that they would either be "given to a poor family or burned". Most likely, they have already been destroyed. In addition to this, he holds his chest in the spot where he was punched by Dad after being told not to cry, less he gets "something to cry about". There was little to no warning in that situation from referenced "Dad". Beyond the chest pounding and the illegal seizure of my son's things (Please reference Order on Motion, dated April 9, 2009, page 4, which reads: "ORDERED  that Garrett shall be permitted by both parents to bring his belongings back and forth between households and shall be encouraged to bring items upon his expressing a desire to do so".  This allowance would be found directly above the notice to Dad to "not, under any circumstances, ride a motorcycle on a public highway with Garrett on the motorcycle or permit anyoen else to do so while Garrett is in his care...". The only reason I again refer to the motorcycle incident is due to the in his care clause. Sadly, Dad is unable, incapable, or completely unwilling to provide care for his son. I have witnessed this time and again. You, if you were any kind of decent, capable, and adept law guardian would too. For whatever the reason, you appear to be enamored with Dad and therefore, disregard and blatantly ill-advise (i.e. LIE) to the court of law which you are bound to uphold the mission of. This does not surprise me either because for six years and counting, you have failed your client to such a fault that he can verbalize your alliance to Dad with clarity. 

I have attempted to call you tonight and held my breath while doing so. You live not two miles from my own home and yet, have never stopped. I stopped counting the number of phone calls placed over six years when I got to 77.  I stopped thinking about how sickening your acting position is when you attempted to weasel your way into a situation which you knew/know nothing of outside of Dad's rantings. And yet still, after watching my child relay what could be into the triple digits of a story count for tales befallen him by his Dad, I called you.  Because YOUR JOB is to act as the voice for children that do not contain the vocabulary or comprehension of the unfortunate domestic situation(s) that their parents are in. Because you have taken (supposedly) an oath to Do No Harm to those same children and to speak with ease and comfort, to hear their limited vocabularies describe situations that a decent parent never wishes upon their child - and to then take that sullen story to a Judge who will make a conscious and clear-headed decision for the well-being of the child.

Yet, you fail. You have failed my child many times over and you continue still. You seek the admiration of a crowd you are not fit to stand before. Your lame attempts at vengeance and ill will toward me come as nothing other than a transference of hatred you must hold toward someone else. I can take it. Raised with accountability and responsibility; I can take it. My child; your client should not have to.
Your phone beeped without connection. You must not have power on the other side of the hill - so I stood there thinking of a way that I could get out the information that you absolutely need to heed.  Which brings me to the present: Life does not operate on a nine to five schedule. Most situations which you are charged to recount for the sake of any court of law occur either before or after such luxuries.  I do not expect you to suddenly decide to do the right thing because at half a decade's worth of time, you have neglected to do the right thing. What I do expect is for you to see that you are harming those same persons - children -  because of your obstinate comprehension of your duty and to therefore, remove yourself.  For a child of eight years old to accurately recount the whereabouts of your timely visits with his Dad...for him to be so discouraged at realizing what he told you in confidence, what you swore was between you and he - to watch you march directly to Dad and relay only the pertinent details keeping Dad in your favor - it is grotesque.  You are not there when the reactions hit. You are not there when he is pummeled for crying, hit for speaking, or mocked for knowing. And the most repulsive part? You do not seem to care. So please, do my son as well as any other child entrusted to your position as Law Guardian a huge favor: RESIGN.

You know my number,
Patricia

Shameful

Shameful that your personal growth was stymied long before you reached adulthood.  Consequently you have remained in a position of virtual childhood, owing only to immature antics.  Shameful that you think even with your entrance upon more than three decades of life, you are somewhat entitled to speak as condescending; act as ego-maniacal as you sound, and most-disappointingly - use our child as your scapegoating pawn in order to get to me.

Do your worst I say. But do your worst to me. Leave out the innocent that you could once identify with.  I thought that it was known. You do not manipulate your child. You do not elevate your own agenda by the damage to your son.  You were unfortunately showered with these same sad and sick behaviors through your quote un-quote youth. You learned first-hand how to hurt, despite allegiance to family.  I seriously question at times, whether allegiance of any kind has a place in your life.  It certainly does not in relationships, nor in fatherhood. I can speak to its absence in marriage and now our child can attest to its awakening in his own life, led by none other than his own father. 

The damaging and hurtful dialogue to your child - by both you and your newly espoused, will affect his psyche for years. It already is. He exchanges doubt with the care that he feels for you and that you squander on a target toward martyring yourself and bringing pain to me. Yet,  you are not bringing pain to me except that through our child. He is the one that suffers and questions if you are anything other than empty and mean. I listen intently and give hugs whenever I can. I answer what voids I can account for yet many remain as just that -- a void.  And mostly, I pray for you.  Stymied. That is what you inhabit.  A stale, non-expressive existence that  must lead you to believe you were forgotten. Your own emptiness is quartered and delivered to those closest to you so that they might do your bidding which you are too cowardice to complete. 

I answered tonight with a reply that would make you blush, had you a conscience.  He asked me why you hate me so ...why you hate where I came from with such disdain?  I answered: because there...there, he (as in you) had to be a man ...and he could not.  There - he had to be accountable, and he failed. And there - he had to be responsible and he did not know how.  Here - where he is now requires none of that. It is easy for him (you again) to be spiteful, vengeful and manipulative.  It is effortless to be irresponsible, unaccountable and fueled by your self-serving agenda toward defeat.

And what was the worst part?

After all that...after the listening and the explaining...our child gave a half-cocked smirk, closed his eyes and said: "I'm sorry Mommy".

As if he has anything to be blamed for. Yet my pride in seeing a child of a mere eight-years-old taking more responsibility and insight than the man that so candidly hands out psychological warfare -- it made me happy and sad.  He is going to be far greater, far bigger a man than your greatest desires for a meager existence.  There will come a day when you wish you could measure up to the boy that you portrayed as being led astray. And you will not. Your poor presentation as a caring, doting father, will be massively over-shadowed by the child that you irreverently dismissed. 

And at that point, that half-smirked grin of his will grow in accordance with my own.  I will be the one to apologize for your lacking, shameful solitude, with a hug and an: "I'm sorry son".