Growing my Exoskeleton

Bullying. Life is full of bullies in one way or another. Easiest way to deal with them is to grow an extreme backbone. This task I've already completed. In light of recent events..I'm learning that I might need to also work on an exoskeleton. Other nerds get it. Pretty sure that single parents do as well.
In a perfect world ex spouses co-parent together perfectly. There is no arguing. They do holidays together as well as birthdays. I actually know someone who has this arrangement with her ex. It is really sweet. I'm not quite sure how she pulls it off. Either way, I envy her. Flash forward to my life...I'm standing literally in front of the judge in some sort of conference. I'm not really listening well. Partly because I can get a little distracted, whatever, but mostly because I hate the words that are coming out of his mouth. Remember old men always say I have sass mouth. Let's keep in mind that I WASN'T talking. The judge is going on and on about progressive parenting and how dads need more time with their children versus the standard custody arrangement. I completely agree. However, since my child is only ONE I also kind of feel that it's not fair to him that he have to split custody between both parents on a week here and a week there basis. Crib hopping is not a skill that I really want him learning at such an early age. I mean shit..can we at least just wait until it's at least toddler bed hopping? The judge proceeds to go on about how he doesn't care that my son has two other siblings at home, "sibling group isn't that important." Dude...WTF? It kind of is, but yes father time trumps it because he is the PARENT, got it. I've never withheld custody...even in the brief phase where his dad forgot that he needed a stable residence to live at. I felt like not only was I being bullied, but my attorney was as well. The judge clearly had his balls in his hands and was squeezing them. I tried to remain calm. I'm not really great at hiding my body language (again..like sass mouth minus the talking). The judge then proceeded to call me on my non vocal version of sass mouth, which ok...did kind of look like eye rolling and looking away. Yes, at 35 I got SCOLDED...It was REALLY, REALLY hard for me at that point to not say a word, but I didn't. I looked back to my friend for moral support. She looked worried, that's a bad sign. Thank God she's southern. I couldn't have brought a better person to help me to remain calm. Any of my other friends most likely would have hard a hard time containg their own version of sass mouth. It's been a very long movie for them to watch..It hasn't been easy for them, I know that and I love them for it. Enough said. Even with all of that I am complete agreement that my ex needs tons of time with his son which he has...it's just not split down the middle, he's just too little for that right now.

Conclusion: Less kittens and rainbow version of my divorce probably means a new attorney. Damn it. But let's face it...I've never been a kitten kind of girl...I'm okay with it :)