Re control and intentionality, one thing that has reframed my perspective over time is the experience of uBPDx telling lies re his cheating. Not misunderstandings, emotional outbursts, etc, just straight up factual lies sustained in moments of emotion but also calm and quiet, lies told strategically to multiple people and to secure a particular result.

At the time, i took the above outburst as a pure expression of distress. Now I am not so sure. Invoking self harm to demand or elicit a reaction from a partner is a pretty terrible thing, and the fact in the weeks after I was snappy, stressed or just wanted to hide and fall asleep when i saw uBPDx, and that this was characterised as me being 'horrible', is also awful.

The fact a close friend had previously lost a close person in very proximate circumstances to suicide, that i told uBPDx this affected me a lot, and yet he had no qualms continuing to bombard me with self harming rhetoric to secure a desired response or experience his own emotional release, is also pretty selfish.

My wife and I have been together for 3 years and legally married for 3 months. Looking back, there were emotionally unstable patterns throughout the relationship, but I interpreted them as sensitivity, insecurity, or unresolved trauma rather than something more serious.

Over the last month and a half, things became extremely volatile. There were threats of divorce, emotional abuse, fear of abandonment, constant emotional swings, and a level of chaos that left me emotionally exhausted and confused.

Recently, she acknowledged she may have Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and is now asking for another chance. She’s apologetic, wants therapy seriously, and says she finally understands the impact of her behavior.

I care about her deeply, but I’m struggling to know whether this can realistically improve long term or whether I’m stepping back into a damaging cycle.

For those with partners who actively committed to therapy/DBT, did things improve in a stable and meaningful way over time? What changed, and what didn’t?

Hi Karmakat23
Thank you for posting. I am going through a very rough patch myself at the moment and your post reminded me that there are others who are in a similar situation – exhausted from years of crises and supporting, ‘being there’ when no one else was – and then being the one who is blamed and lied about while all this support is taken for granted.

Perhaps you are not gong 10 steps back. Perhaps it’s a fork in the road. Someone with BPD has a fragile sense of self – but when you are the person who supports them, you tend to lose your own self in their needs and crises. Along the journey we are given many options, and I know that I have tended to always choose to support my BPD child, and especially when the next generation child comes on the scene.

You are not in a situation of options from what I read. Your DD has cut off contact, has denied you access to your grandchild. Now your mother says you ‘have to accept’ her decision in relation to your DD.

We feel so devastated and devalued when all this happens. It is hard to carry the pain of it all. But it is also an opportunity. I may be wrong but I feel my DD has, in the past, been somewhat empowered by my pain – a pain she has caused. When I realised this I taught myself to stop myself from falling into depression etc but to see it as an opportunity to nurture and find myself that had been submerged in responding to my DD’s needs.

I am not expressing myself very well. I think what I am trying to say is that you have given now for decades – you have been selfless and loving, and without any gratitude or recognition.

I feel like I will have to grieve my mother and move on because the wreckage is just to much.

I think yes, listen to  your feelings and your insight. You have the right to grieve, but you also have the right to acknowledge to yourself all that you have done. Sometimes it is a good idea to write all these things down and read them to yourself when you are feeling low. It is a way of remembering that you have done all that is possible to do and you have loved your child in every way possible.

If you can spend a short time each day just appreciating yourself and the gift of your life I think it is helpful.

Thanks again for posting.

In our case, regarding medical decisions, the tiebreaker is the doctor. 

So if the doctor recommends a course of treatment and one parent disagrees, the doctor's recommendation is the tiebreaker. 

You could do this for mental health decisions, dental treatments, etc. 

It becomes harder to do with things where you don't have a qualified professional in the equation.  I've heard some decrees specify mediation as a tiebreaker for other things.  That could be as inexpensive as a $1,000 or so to book a few hours with a mediator, or be as expensive as a full-blown lawsuit if both parties get attorneys. 

In other matters, like school for examples, the default around where I live is the custodial parent's residence would establish it.  Even if custody is 50/50, one parent is still designated as the custodial. 

I went through a lot of this.

In my case, the advice I received (I feel like I'm sharing this a lot lately) was to validate a child's feelings and perception, but not to badmouth the other parent.  And, this is important, to help them realize they can have their own thoughts and feelings separately from mom or dad (whoever is BPD).  It can be difficult sometimes, because pwBPD just do not do themselves any favors in terms of how they behave toward those closest to them.  I think it's okay to say how someone behaved is inappropriate, but you don't have to go as far as labeling them something.  I think that might be one rule: criticize the parent's behavior, but not the parent (at least not yet).

In time, as they get older, they might ask for more information, as they see how other adults behave and realize how out-of-line the BPD parent is. 

My sister has a highly contentious divorce and parenting schedule with her uNPD, high-conflict, non-cooperative, dysfunctional ex-husband.  I see you're considering potential issues around non-cooperation and unilateral decision-making, which are exactly the sort of things you should be considering.  However, no matter how much you try to establish the legal "rules," that doesn't necessarily mean they'll stick to them in practice--because BPD/NPD often means being governed by emotions and not by fair play, and typically not in the child's best interest.  That's why you need to document everything, in case you need to go back to court.  

Anyway, in practice, I think it means that when your child is with you, you proceed with your normal parenting:  taking your child to the doctor, taking him/her to activities, monitoring screen time, doing homework, sharing meals, etc.  If your kid needs to go to the orthodontist, I'd say, just schedule an office visit during your parenting time if you want to ensure the orthodontist visit actually happens.  Ditto a visit to the pediatritian.  If your kid wants to play soccer, then you go ahead and take your kid to soccer practice during your parenting time.  Maybe mom doesn't want to deal with the hassle of soccer practice, and that would be a shame, but at least your kid plays soccer when they're with you.  You could put the activities and doctor's visits on the common calendar for record-keeping, and I doubt that any court would rule that a doctor's visit or soccer practice is detrimental to the child.  Your ex could throw a fit if she wants, but as long as you do what's right for your kid, there's little she can do.  I mean, how could she justify saying that going to the doctor is bad for the child?

One area of possible contention might be child phones, for example if one parent wants a 12-year-old to have a phone and the other one doesn't.  I'd say, the child could have the phone with the parent (e.g. mom) who allows it, but when visitation is over, she leaves the phone at mom's house.  Mom might argue she wants to be able to contact her kid while at your place, and you tell her, she can call when she wants on your phone, but she's not supposed to interrupt your parenting time.  As for contacting your child while at school, she can call the school's office as has been done for decades.

Another possible area of contention is media use.  An example is that one parent wants to abide by movie ratings (e.g. a 10-year-old wouldn't watch a movie rated PG-13 or R, or watch pornography), and the other parent lets their kids watch anything on devices with no parental controls.  I think in practice, media consumption is difficult to enforce from afar.  I think that you establish the rules for your house and hope for the best at mom's house.  But if you find evidence that your kid is consuming inappropriate media at mom's house, you might try to document it and get the court to intervene.  But the reality is it's costly.

With my disordered BIL, there have been some questionable parenting decisions, such as taking his girls (aged 10 at the time) to get their hair permed and colored in whacky colors, and also wearing age-inappropriate, suggestive clothes, such as high heels and the like.  Though that sort of thing angered their mom, at the end of the day, it was just hair, and just clothes, meaning nothing permanent.  Maybe you could stipulate in the parenting plan that there could be no body-altering procedures (e.g. tattoos, piercings, gender affirmation surgeries) without consent from both parents.  

At the end of the day, what got the court to severely restrict parenting time by the disordered parent was a detailed CPS report.  In it, the guardian ad litem detailed deficient parenting:  inability to provide meals to the kids, not keeping child-friendly food in the house, unclean living quarters, evidence of verbal abuse of the kids (e.g. calling them whores and idiots), sleeping during most of the parenting time, inability to pick up the children in a timely manner (making them miss their scheduled activities), missing a material amount of parenting time with inadequate notice, car accidents/evidence of unsafe driving, parentification issues, etc.  In other words, he was unable to fulfill basic parental duties consistently.  Sure, he had a million excuses and blamed his ex-wife for all sorts of things, but CPS saw through all that eventually.

I've often commented that I like the concept of Decision Making or Tie Breaker status but occasionally I've had responses that those terms weren't possible in their states.  For example, I've heard that Florida doesn't have separate categories for custody and parenting.  So interviewing some of your more experienced local family law attorneys (lawyers or solicitors) may inform you of approaches they've tried.  You don't have to pay a retainer or hire every lawyer you consult or interview.

When seeking Tie Breaker status, you can explain to the court that sometimes a prompt resolution to a timely issue is necessary but that the other parent would still have the option (and expense) to seek appointed professionals' decision later.  Those professionals may be mediators, parenting coordinators or even the court itself.

For example, there may be school or medical decisions that can't be put off for months and months until court gets around to a series of hearings.

Some looked at the interests of the other parent.  Perhaps the custody could be split into various groups.  You ex might feel that is a "win" if one gets religious or dental authority while the other gets medical or school authority... sort of a mix and match.

Most courts are reluctant to modify orders.  Part of this may be that they really want the parents to "work it out".  That's how a petition or motion in court can take several hearings before finally the court is forced to issue a decision.  (And judges don't like to make decisions since they can be appealed and there is risk of a reversal.)  So often they'll try to make as small a change as possible.  The lesson I (belatedly) walked away with:  Get as good and futureproof of a court order from the very start.

I recall when I was at the too-brief initial temp order hearing and my lawyer whispered to me, "Shh... we'll fix it later."  Yeah, like two years later?  Lesson learned.  Boilerplate temp orders may be somewhat temporary in most court cases but our sort of cases take much, much longer to get resolved.

Thank you ForeverDad. The book sounds helpful, does it mention BPD? We don't have any diagnosis, I'm sure it would be helpful regardless. Lately I have really seen how his behavior affects them. He can be fine for long periods, and it gets bad when he smokes marijuana. He will go months not touching it, and things are great, and months using it, where he becomes short tempered, entitled, manipulative and arrogant. Honestly I've come to realize what a low standard I've been having for "things are great", it's really not that great and there is still emotional abuse.

This site is our comfort zone where we can feel safe and free to seek practical solutions.  No need to apologize.  I somehow didn't notice your marital status.  That's why many of my posts cover a variety of scenarios.  That way even others besides yourself who browse here can benefit.  Feel free to pick our brains and determine what fits your needs.

In my own experience, like so many others, I found it hard to decide.  One way I look at it, my other choices didn't work or clearly weren't wise.  Though I didn't want my marriage/relationship to end, eventually I saw a path forward.  Better said, the path forward was made more obvious to me.  It wasn't easy nor without more pain along the way, but each step forward became progressively clearer.

Thank you again for the responses. One thing I’m also wondering about is whether anyone here has experience with custody orders that are still technically “joint,” but include some kind of tie-breaking authority or defined decision-making power when the parents cannot agree.

I’m not trying to cut the other parent out of major decisions. Ideally, I would like both parents to be involved and for decisions to be made cooperatively. The issue I’m running into is that when my ex gets upset, she can make sweeping decisions on her own, change the schedule, withhold cooperation, or frame unilateral choices as being in our child’s best interest without actually including me.

That leaves me in a position where I either have to accept the decision, risk escalating the conflict, or wait for court while the situation continues. I’m trying to think ahead about what kind of structure actually protects the child and prevents one parent from using conflict or emotion as a way to control the situation.

Has anyone had an order where legal custody stayed joint, but one parent had final decision-making authority in certain areas after a good-faith attempt to confer? Or where there were specific categories like medical, school, therapy, extracurriculars, travel, or schedule disputes that had a clear fallback mechanism?

I’m especially interested in what actually worked in real life. For example:

• tie-breaking authority after written notice and a response window
• parenting coordinator involvement
• specific decision categories assigned to each parent
• requirements that schedule changes be mutually agreed in writing
• limits on unilateral changes unless there is a true emergency
• consequences or remedies when one parent ignores the order

I’m trying to protect both myself and my son from situations where instability or retaliation can suddenly override the normal parenting structure. I still want joint parenting in principle, but I’m realizing that “joint” only works if there is a practical mechanism for what happens when one parent refuses to cooperate.