So my wife is wanting a divorce and after reading countless posts on here I had some questions.

1) The number 1 thing I see on here is don't move out of the house. I was wondering what the consequences would be of doing so? Initially this was something that I was planning on doing but after reading this and after the initial meeting with a lawyer it was said to not do so. I guess I'm just wanting more information on this

2) We have a 10 year old son. I am requesting 50/50 custody. This is by far the most important thing to me. She was previously married before me and their arrangement with the two girls she had with her ex husband called for just every other weekend. That just isn't something I would ever accept here. So my question is, are the courts basically 50/50 on that? Is there any particular reason it wouldn't be 50/50. I suspect that she's wanting more than 50/50 so she'd get more in CS. Then of course I was accused of the same thing which is just insanity to me considering after this........he would be all that I have. My relationship with my wife, two stepdaughters I have helped raise since they were 3 and 7 and their grand kids. This is why 50/50 anything other than that isn't even possible IMO.

3) In line with number 1. She wants me to move out. Initially I had agreed to give her the house completely....100%. In return she would agree to not going after my retirement or saddle me with the massive amount of debt that she has (tho I find this completely absurd that one can use this stuff as an advantage here). Based on the advice I received, I don't want to move unless the divorce papers are filed OR an agreement is in place. I don't want to be responsible for the upkeep of this house and the bills when i'll have to do the same whereever I go. I guess my question would be did anyone do this before? Do you regret it? If my son wasn't involved, i'd just as well sell the house and split it 50/50. But I don't want to do that to him. I would even agree as to not refinance the house that way the house payments don't go up for her. Then when my son graduates, she'd agree to sell it.

4) So obviously the ideal thing here would be to not go through lawyers. We don't have a ton of assets here and it makes sense for our savings to go to the both of us instead of lawyers. So my concern with all the above is, she's wanting to do a formal agreement then have it signed off and notarized. I am to send her a listing of things I'm wanting out of this. I put in it that I will not sign off on anything until I have a lawyer look over it. But I guess once the agreement is signed off, it's legally binding? Her primary goal is get me out of the house ASAP. I just want to make sure if I do that, she can't go back and change anything with this.

5) I suppose if we don't go the lawyer route, anything disagreed on still goes to mediation?

Sorry for all the questions I just have a million things running through my mind right now with all this and the pressure to move isn't helping either.