I live in California and have a 22-month-old daughter.  I work near San Francisco, about 2 hours away from my home in Modesto.  I would do the commute a few days each week, stay overnight in an apartment near work a few nights a week, and spend all weekends at home.  A few months ago, my wife decided she wanted a divorce and insisted that she'd only allow me to see my daughter 3 weekends per month, no more than this, not even during summer, when I'm off from work.  I said I wanted equal time.  In response, she got one of her male friends to threaten to beat me up and disappeared for five days with our daughter.  When she returned home, she changed the locks and wouldn't answer the door or phone.  I was forced to start living full-time at the apartment.  I didn't see my daughter for 2 weeks, until my lawyer finally got a meeting with the judge.  My wife's lawyer lied, claiming that my daughter couldn't have overnight visits with me for medical reasons.  So I was given the right to visit her for a few hours, three times a week in Modesto (requiring me to make three 4-hour round trips).  When I got a note from the doctor, proving that her lawyer had lied, the court took no action against the lawyer or my wife, but instead changed the visitation schedule to every other weekend, plus 2 weekday afternoon visits requiring 4-hour round trips.  What about summer, when I'm off from work?  Court refused to consider allowing my daughter to have any weekday overnight visits in summer, even though my wife's work schedule requires our daughter to be in daycare up to 11 1/2 hours a day, but I'm off from work in summer.  Also, they refused to consider allowing my daughter to live with me on weekdays, even though I'm only in the classroom 3 hours a day (as a college professor) while my wife is at work 9-11 hours a day.  And, prior to starting my current job last fall, I was living in Modesto, working part-time, and therefore the primary childcare provider for our daughter.  Is this the normal state of affairs in California, or is this sort of bias unique to Stanislaus County?