My Story

I didn’t start this movement because I survived some dramatic custody battle. My own situation with my kids wasn’t a war — there was no fight for custody or to see or not see the children. My struggle wasn’t the courtroom chaos that so many families face. My struggle came later, when the system still failed to do what it was supposed to do. Even simple things like child support became a maze of delays and inconsistency. And that’s when I learned something important: even when parents aren’t fighting, the system can still fail the family.

But most families aren’t that lucky. Most parents do fight — and often in ways that have very little to do with the children. They tell themselves it’s about protecting their kids, but underneath it all, it’s usually about anger, mistrust, disappointment, or the hurt left behind when a relationship breaks apart. When emotions take over, people lose sight of the fact that they’re fighting for their children, not against each other. And when parents weaponize the system, the system often lets them — not because the issues are extreme or dangerous, but because the everyday cases are handled by a structure that is outdated, overloaded, understaffed, and undertrained.

That’s where bias creeps in. Not always out of malice, but out of exhaustion and pressure.

When workers are juggling too many cases, they don’t have time to dig deeper. They rely on shortcuts, assumptions, and whatever seems easiest in the moment. And families pay the price for that. Bias becomes part of the process — not because people intend harm, but because the system is built in a way that allows it.

I’m not talking about the rare, extreme cases — the ones involving serious violence or criminal behavior. Those require a different level of intervention. I’m talking about the everyday families, the ones who should be able to resolve things without losing years of their lives, their savings, or their stability. The ones who get caught in a system that cannot keep up.

I’ve watched immediate family members navigate a process that feels endless and unpredictable. I’ve watched them face delays that make no sense, decisions that seem rushed or inconsistent, and a system that feels too overwhelmed to look closely at what truly matters. And I’ve seen the impact on their children — the confusion, the instability, the emotional weight that children should never have to carry.

The worst part is the waiting.

The motions. The continuances. The extensions. The hearings pushed months out. The cases that drag on for years because the system doesn’t have the staffing or structure to move urgent matters forward.

Every delay means more attorney fees. More financial strain. More emotional damage. More instability. More opportunities for conflict and manipulation.

And through all of it, the children are the ones who suffer the most. They don’t have years to wait while adults shuffle paperwork. Their lives are happening right now.

I’ve read hundreds of stories from families across Michigan. Different counties. Different judges. Different circumstances. But the same themes: long delays, skyrocketing attorney fees, inconsistent decisions, overwhelmed workers, and children caught in the middle of a system that cannot keep up. These families aren’t rare. They aren’t outliers. They’re the rule.

That’s why I started Michigan Families Deserve Better. Not because I lived through the worst of it, but because I’ve seen what happens when the system fails — and I refuse to look away. I refuse to pretend this is normal. I refuse to accept that families should be broken by a process that claims to protect them.

This website is the beginning — a place to tell the truth, a place to show what’s really happening, a place where families can finally feel seen. I’m building this piece by piece, page by page, story by story.

Because Michigan families deserve better. And I’m not waiting for someone else to fix it.

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