When you hear the term ‘Custody Battle,’ you have a certain image in your mind. Courtroom fights, crying kids, the worst stereotypes we learn from movies and television. But what happens when you find yourself in a fight for the custody of your kids for real? This week on the show, we welcome Reneé Rodriguez, custody coach and founder of Best Foot Forward, a company with a singular mission: helping parents navigate family court in contentious custody situations.We talk about perspective – look at what you’re bringing to your lawyer. Are they gripes? Or are they real issues? There’s a difference between the real world and the legal world, and it’s important to know the difference. The goal, of course, is to help you as the parent figure out what’s actually in your best interest. That doesn’t necessarily line up with what you think is in your best interest. The faster you’re able to connect with that, the easier your custody battle will be.The key in all custody cases is, of course, the kids. How do you protect your kids so they are damaged as little as possible in the process? This is particularly true when trying to get away from a spouse who is a narcissist or abusive. And the real struggle here is that you have to acknowledge that court-ordered parenting classes rarely make a change in a parent. Courts can’t order parents change to be better parents. But judges are real people. They’re working to help the child end up in the best situation they can.There’s a lot to discuss about this topic. Tune in!
About ReneéI help parents in a custody battle against a narcissistic co-parent to go into family court and get the custody arrangement that's best for their kids.  These women and men have suffered psychological abuse at the hands of their former partners and are working to ensure their children are protected from further cruelty.  My company, Best Foot Forward, was founded in early 2018, born out of the encouragement of others to focus on what I had become highly skilled at--navigating family court with my particular strategy and set of templates and sharing all of this with others.Links & Notes

• National Domestic Violence Hotline
• Best Foot Forward LLC
• Best Foot Forward’s Custody Templates
• Reneé on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
• Schedule a consult with Seth
• Got a question you want to ask on the show? Click here!

• (00:00) - Welcome to How to Split a Toaster
• (01:44) - Meet Reneé Rodriguez
• (02:19) - Custody Battles
• (06:23) - Important to You vs. The Court
• (11:34) - Coaching the Parent
• (13:28) - What's Fair
• (14:06) - Documentation
• (17:56) - Buried in Details
• (19:54) - The Kids
• (23:59) - What's Kept Them Stable
• (27:46) - Domestic Violence
• (36:46) - High Conflct
• (39:25) - DV Hotline
• (40:15) - Reneé's Background
• (48:44) - Best Foot Forward
• (50:16) - Contentious Cases
• (51:26) - Wrap Up