This is a fun little story out of Canada, where a woman is having all sorts of trouble getting the judge to believe that her husband has got some questionable sources of income. She has made claims that the guy hasn't reported all of his income, but the judge isn't buying it. The guy definitely sounds suspicious, though. He's into some sort of real estate dealings and owns a hip-hop clothing store. And his estranged wife says he moves in gambling circles and wanted the judge to restrict him from taking the couple's two children to certain places.

Lots of talk, but apparently no proof. The woman was granted 55 percent of the family assets, but the judge issued a joint custody ruling despite the fact that the guy at least looks a little shady. He reportedly secured a $500,000 loan without any registered security. Something tells me that doesn't happen unless you know certain kinds of people, if you catch my drift.

You would think that appearances are everything when it comes to a judge making a custody ruling in a divorce trial. Maybe the guy used some of that half million to buy himself some really talented lawyers.

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There's a strange set of laws in Japan that are making things difficult for children who are born within 300 days of a divorce and their mothers.

I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of Japan's divorce laws or its "child registration" laws, but from what I can tell, if a child is born within 300 days after a divorce, the child is legally considered the offspring of the mother's former husband. As you might imagine, that could cause all sorts of problems.

A news report I read about this issue cited one example where a couple split up and the woman conceived a baby with her new boyfriend. But the ex-husband didn't make sure that the divorce papers went through in a timely manner. Because of the delay, the baby was born 155 days after the divorce was finalized, and now there's a dust-up over who the child's father is, according to the law.

Wow, this whole thing seems really silly. So many times, when I read about these antiquated, overly complicated family laws in other countries, I'm not sure what surprises me more — the fact that any of these laws are still on the books or the fact that anyone cooked them up in the first place. What possible purpose does a law like this serve?

One order of common sense for the folks in Japan, please!

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As long as Britney Spears and Kevin Federline keep talking, or having court dates to settle their custody problems, or having meltdowns that land one of them in the psych ward, people are going to keep writing about them.

But K-Fed says that's OK. Why? People want to know what happens to the tabloid family of the year because it makes others "feel normal." I guess there's something to be said for that. Britney and K-Fed are hardly the first parents to have a dramatic divorce and custody battle. So to that extent, a lot of people can relate to them.

The problem is most people can't relate to the attempt to maintain one's stardom while a marriage is falling apart and kids' futures are hanging in the balance. Most divorcing mothers don't go staggering around on stage in their underwear, and most divorcing fathers aren't plotting their comeback and starring in Super Bowl TV commercials. And that's because most divorcing parents immerse themselves in the tasks at hand — both the legal ones and the day-to-day ones, like going to work and keeping a roof over their heads.

Hey K-Fed, maybe looking at other people's divorce and custody battles should make YOU feel normal.

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Leave it to Dr. Drew to get this whole Britney Spears thing figured out.

Drew Pinsky — the guy who hosted "Loveline" on MTV and who now hosts "Celebrity Rehab" on VH1 — was quoted recently by US Magazine saying that Britney's emotional and addiction problems and her divorce simply were unavoidable. He says that having a parent with an addiction — which Britney does — puts you at a significant risk of developing a similar problem. And the fact that Britney had an unstable home life as a child goes a long way toward explaining what we've seen from her in the last couple of years.

Of course, Dr. Drew may just be angling to get the pop princess booked onto "Celebrity Rehab." Tell me that doesn't scream ratings bonanza. Who needs Hollywood writers when there's Britney and cheaply made low-brow reality programming?

In all seriousness, the guy does give a lot of insightful answers and it's worth reading through the Q & A he did with US Magazine. One of the big points you take away from what he says is that when parents have a messy relationship, there's a really good chance the kids are going to struggle emotionally, both in the short term and in the long term. If you have kids and your marriage is ending, at a certain point you have prioritize their well-being.

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Sometimes you read a story about a family in crisis and it gives you more than a little perspective. Everyone has pain and suffering and frustration during a divorce. But there's a family in England that is living a nightmare.

Angela Cannings was in custody for four years for allegedly murdering two infant sons. She was eventually freed four years ago when a court determined that SIDS was to blame for the deaths. As if that's not bad enough, she also lost another child to SIDS. Upon being released from jail, it seems Cannings and her husband tried to start rebuilding their life. But last year, she left for a "fresh start." The two have shared custody of their only surviving child, but now Cannings is seeking a divorce and full custody of the child.

I barely know where to begin talking about this story. There is no answer. This family has been ripped apart on multiple levels. They have lost three children. Their surviving daughter spent four years without a mother. And now, on top of everything else, they're having to navigate a divorce. I guess in a strange, cruel way the divorce is the least of their concerns after everything that's happened. But I don't mean to be callous about it. This is a family that's been through unspeakable pain. Here's hoping the three of them — mother, father and daughter — can find some help and some peace.

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Here's one of those medical study stories that you're not sure whether to believe. But if there's any credence to it, this one is pretty scary.

Researchers in Sweden say that babies of separated parents are three times more likely to develop diabetes. The theory is that children — even babies — pick up on the stress their parents are feeling and it causes them to becomes stressed, themselves. And that, in turn, leads to auto-immunity, a condition where the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells.

I only saw a brief mention of this and didn't see much else in the way of support for the theory. But if there's anything to this study, it's something worth looking into. Here in the U.S., we have increasing rates of childhood obesity and diabetes, and I don't remember hearing anyone link up these problems with our sky-high divorce rate. Is there a correlation? Maybe there are some more researchers out there willing to check it out.

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The news just keeps getting worse for pop princess Britney Spears. After Britney's apparent meltdown on Thursday, a court has granted K-Fed sole custody of their children and suspended Britney's visitation rights. Reportedly, the situation will be re-evaluated in a couple weeks. Meanwhile, word came late Friday that she had been put into a psych ward at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. It's the wing of the hospital where they monitor suicidal patients.

It seems Britney couldn't handle the trauma of handing the kids back over to K-Fed as part of their previous custody arrangement. She ended up being taken to the hospital, and there have been rumors flying that the incident may have been the result of drug use, but a police spokesperson quoted in a published report said there was no evidence of that.

It's easy to poke fun at every new twist in the Britney/K-Fed saga. But let's be honest: Lots of people have to deal with the trauma of handing kids over to the ex for a few days. All of Britney's fame and money can't make her immune to such painful situations. And her inability to keep things on an even keel in her life is obviously making things even more difficult for her. If she wants to have custody of her kids, she needs to find a way to hold it together and act like a parent. Just like anyone else.

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We do a lot of writing here at FWW about how to navigate through a divorce and then move beyond it. And there's no shortage of advice on the topic. I read a lot of these types of "tips" articles, quoting one expert after another, all of them pretty much saying the same things. Like anything else repetitive, it begins to lose its meaning after a while, particularly since the advice always seems like it's being offered in a vacuum. There's only so much "divorce theory" you can read before you wonder how much of the so-called insight really holds any water in practical application.

Well, I saw a piece in the Vancover Sun about a book on divorced couples compiled by a radio producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Each chapter is an essay about a divorced couple that has managed to put aside their own differences and sometimes go to extreme measures to keep life on an even keel for their children. The writer, herself, is divorced and shares a house with her ex husband. He lives on one floor, she lives on another, and their kids have both parents under one roof, so to speak.

It sounds like this book might offer a lot of real-world solutions for families that are breaking up. Of course, there's no such thing as one size fits all, and what these people have done may not work for you. But maybe some variation on the solutions they've come up with will prove useful to you. And maybe reading their stories can offer a little bit of hope that it can all work out for the best.

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It's good to get a little common-sense advice during a crazy time. As we've written before, a lot of marriages break up during this time of year. And a piece I read in the Washington Post did a nice job of summing up a few things to think about if it happens to you. The writer talked to five divorce experts (three men, two women, four of them divorced) and offered up a few tips that I thought were worthwhile.

Get counseling. Don't rush into a lawyer's office or be in a hurry to file paperwork. First go talk to someone. Ideally, you do this as a couple, but I think it would be valuable to do on your own if you feel like your marriage is falling apart and you need to talk it out.

Be careful about the tone. This one is hard. If you're initiating a conversation to end your marriage, there's no easy way to do it. Maybe the holiday season isn't the best time to have that talk. But when you do, you need to try to be as calm as possible. Sure, you may end up shouting at each other. But eventually, you're going to need to sit and have a real conversation about it.

Give each other time. This one is important if you're the one who initiates. You've already made your decision, but he hasn't. And even if he realizes you're right, he will probably still need time to digest it.

Stay out of court. Wow, glad to see someone besides me pushing this one. Mediation is the way to go. Dig in with lawyers and you're going to cost yourself time and money that you'll never get back.

Once again, someone is trying to make the case that divorces are prone to happen at a certain time of year. This time around it's a columnist from the Toronto Globe & Mail. She points out that many therapists say they see a rise in the number of initial consultations about divorce this time of year.

The holiday season can be stressful for a lot of families, and that stress can obviously exacerbate a marriage that is already teetering on the brink. So when the final straw comes during the holiday season it's easy to chalk it up holiday stress. But I think it goes far deeper than that.

In fact, I think the last thing you want to do is break up right around the holidays, because then you'll be left to wonder whether you overreacted to the stress of the season. The thing to remember is that even when a marriage does break up, the timing is less important than the build-up to that moment. It didn't end all at once. It took time.

And if the holidays hold special significance for you, there's a risk of permanently changing the way you experience them. The writer recounts the beginning of the end of her marriage, which occurred during a family Christmas vacation to Hawaii. The holidays will never quite be the same for her.

If your marriage is going to end, it's going to happen whenever it's time. I'm not sure you can truly control that. But it's no fun if it happens during what is supposed to be a festive time.

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