When I got into this, I had had my daugther for 7 months after my wife basically walked off. She showed up demanding custody, filed an emergeny order to get custody, and didn't get it. A week later she's at the end of the driveway demanding visitation, and I get on the call from my lawyer and he basically says, well, mom's eventually going to get 50-50 custody so you might as well arrange for that now. Until then, it was "status quo is the bias of the court" but the reality is I was never in a position for full custody.

I'm getting the feeling that this is just the first step down the path of fucking I'm going to get. I am the low earner. The day she found out I filed she emptied the bank accounts and I'm living off a credit card and my weak income. I don't see any workable alimony or support in my future. My wife's base is 3x mine, and with incentives can be much more, but I see my STBXs lawyer saying I need to find a better job. My lawyer has essentially affirmed this because "the court won't say it to a SAHM, but a SAHD can always earn more." I see me saying hey, for the past 14 years I helped pay for the house and retirement, but her lawyer saying I didn't do enough raising the kid and keeping up the house, so there's no way I'm getting 50% of the house and retirement. Today I'm feeling like I should have just put my head down and stayed married until the kid was out of the house and I could have just walked away with whatever I got. Instead I see myself continuing to get shit on by my wife, except now struggling to just survive so I can see my daughter a few times a week. FML.