We turn now to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for some advice on negotiating a favorable divorce settlement. Who better to know how to hoard and leverage a little knowledge than our nation’s spymasters? The heart of any negotiation is, after all, information — information your adversary does not know you have, and information your adversary inadvertently shares. To win ...
Some pieces of paper are unimportant: a losing lottery ticket; a completed grocery list; an expired gift certificate. Some incidental pieces of paper are extremely valuable: a contract signed by Jimi Hendrix sold for $45,9601 a few years back. Some important pieces of paper are priceless: the Magna Carta; the Constitution; a Virginia birth certificate. With the first two, you ...
We know you are really, really busy (boy, have we heard that a lot), but if you have a few minutes maybe you could sit down and read this. Or not. We don’t suppose it really matters. It’s just about your kids, and some post-divorce issues you may face as a Virginia man. Things like your kids, and your ex-wife’s passive-aggressive ...
Which of your relatives is lactose intolerant? Know anybody with a kid allergic to peanuts? Many diagnoses are casually tossed around in our information-rich society. Few people have celiac disease, but many people claim to need gluten-free foods. Some fastidious people joke they are OCD, but true obsessive-compulsive sufferers do not find the actual condition very funny at all. As ...
For many reasons, amateur psychology is prominent these days. Armchair practitioners feel comfortable assigning diagnoses to public figures, politicians, and celebrities. A common term tossed around these days is narcissist, which has a clinical definition but is casually used to describe a self-absorbed adult. Divorcing a narcissist can be wearing on the spouse. Find some relief with these tips. Narcissism ...
The Virginia judge who decreed you and your ex-wife were divorced did so with documents and stipulations. The basics, of course: child visitation and custody, child support (if you had children), but also other issues, like spousal support. A decree is a legal order. Changing it requires the expertise and support of a family law attorney. Modifications to spousal support are ...
Nobody wants to be a bit player in their own life story. You expect to be center stage; your needs, your opinions, even your whims should be your first consideration. Until you become a parent. Then everything you are subsumes to the needs of your child. As educator and author Elizabeth Stone says1, “Making the decision to have a child ...
Ursula Wilder is a spook. We can say that because Ursula Wilder has already had her cover blown. She is a psychologist at the CIA, and was interviewed by NPR1 for a piece about keeping spies from spilling secrets. If you live or work in the northern Virginia area, you are, statistically speaking, within shouting distance of someone with some kind ...
For the 2014-2015 school year, more than six million school-age children were identified as special needs, according to the National Center for Education Statistics1. This is 13 percent of total school enrollment. Managing your divorce as the father of a special needs child is not easy, but you are not alone in your struggle. Fortunately today our societal view of ...