Four Sacramento County Sheriff's cars pulled up in front of David Woods' house. He tried to explain to them what happened. But the lead deputy cut him off: "Yeah, that's fine. Put your hands behind your back."

David said, "No, wait, she stabbed me … there's the knife. See the knife? See my neck wound? See?"

"Put your hands behind your back. Turn around," the deputy replied.

"No," David protested. "She stabbed…"

The deputies drew their weapons. David's little daughters came running out of the back bedroom pleading, "Leave Daddy alone! Mamma tried to hurt him with a knife!"

One deputy, a woman, took the children in the bedroom and shut the door. David stood there, cuffed.

David's wife Ruth had taken the kids out for a walk in 39 degree weather--for seven hours.

"By the time she got back their fingers were blue, their lips were blue, their ears were blue," David says. "The children were soaked; she was soaked. We argued for an hour. We had to put them in a warm bath to warm them up; they were hypothermic.

"Then she started cutting up vegetables for dinner. She had a serrated vegetable knife with a blade about seven inches long. She turned around and she stabbed at me.

"I tried to block it, but I was surprised. I was off balance…the knife went right through my collar and gave me a little nick on my neck.

"She reared back to stab me again. I tried to block it again…I hit her in the mouth. She dropped the knife, ran to the telephone, called 911, and told them, 'My husband is hitting me! I think he's gonna kill me.'

"When she dropped the knife, I stood over it. I wouldn't let her hide the knife. I was going to say to the police, 'See? She tried to stab me.'"

After 15 minutes, the female deputy returned from the bedroom after talking to David's children. She told the other deputies...

In the face of a trial that was scheduled to start in a month, Spears instead agreed to give Federline sole legal and physical custody of their two sons.

I have received many letters over the past several months saying that I should take up Britney Spears' cause.  After all, I publicly advocate shared parenting, and should do so whether the noncustodial parent is a father, as is usually the case, or is a mother, as in this case.

A few people have told me that I should convince Federline to offer Spears shared custody. (Side note: I sometimes find the way people in other parts of the country view Los Angeles to be rather amusing.  People seem to be saying, "Federline is in LA and so are you Glenn," as if I could just call Kevin up on his cell phone.)

As for backing Spears, sorry, but I'll have to pass.  One of the ways that feminists and others who oppose shared parenting distort the issue is that they claim that I and other fatherhood advocates call for "mandatory joint custody," or that we believe in joint custody in all cases.

As I've said and written countless times, I believe in shared parenting for fit parents. If the father (or the mother) is physically abusive to either the spouse or the children, is a drug addict or a drunk, has mental issues or behaves erratically, or is not capable of providing a safe environment for the kids, I do not believe in shared parenting--I believe in sole custody for the fit parent. In this case, that would be Federline.

I don't believe that Britney Spears (pictured, top) is a bad person, but she has not been a fit parent and it is entirely appropriate that Federline, who is a fit parent, get sole custody.  Hopefully Spears will get her act together (she seems to be improving) and play an increasingly larger role in her children's lives.  Hopefully someday they will share custody.  But at this point the children are safer and better off with Federline.

Britney Spears' ex-husband, Kevin Federline, is reportedly in talks to get his own reality show in the near future. The show, according to E! News, would be about Federline, his girlfriend, Victoria Prince, and possibly his two young sons with Spears, Jayden James and Sean Preston...

• Get Involved
• Give a Gift
• Become a Member of the Fathers & Families Action Squad