Hi everyone! o/ First post on here though I've lurked on and off for a while.
sooo, background.. I'll probably ramble on for too long so sorry in advance.. if anything just writing it all down might help give me some clarity and stop annoying my parents/friends with my waffling, but if anyone can manage a reply too, that would be great :)
I'm Daddy to two wonderful little angels. Son's 4 and daughter's 3. Their Mum walked out on me more than a year and a half ago and we've mostly worked things out since. A close friend drowned and I got pretty depressed for a while after, so she helped by leaving. (...)
Initially she moved to a place not far away - walking distance. Schedule of child care was vague and often changing (on her end usually) but was mostly 50/50ish and I didn't have to fight with her to get that. She "was leaving you, but not taking the kids away from you".
Six months later, after suggesting that she might move a bit further away, she did. She doesn't drive and moved to a place half an hour's drive away with Mr. New Guy, who she'd been seeing since 10 days after we split up. He worked up there so they'd been "struggling"? for him to get back from work late and such. No mention of how it would affect the kids or their nursery places, me being able to help when she did need it.. If it was a problem anyway, tough, because she'd already rented a place.
We changed to an entire week with both kids for each parent, as a trial. An idea suggested by me as I certainly wasn't too keen to just "pop up" every time she decided she wanted to change today's plans for some reason, nor have to do 2/3 trips up and back each week. She agreed to try it and we've done the same ever since (not that she's happy about it).. more than a year now as I've refused to cave in to her idea: that children should be with their Mother from Monday to Friday "because I'm their Mother".
She still worked in my town and the kids were attending a great nursery here too. Eventually she gave up trying to bring the kids down to my local nursery (and her job down here), and nursery had to tell me they couldn't have the kids any more as they just couldn't have kids one week then not the next.
I found a new nursery, even better than the last, just a bit out of town but not all that far. They're in the grounds of a great primary school too - ideal for the boy to start there this September. She's never been there, doesn't ask how they're getting on, hasn't been to parents' evening or asked to see reports or anything.
For two whole months they also went to a second nursery with their Mum, on her week, in her town. A place that I thought was crap personally and chosen for her convenience but hey, it's her week, "I can do what I like with them when I have them". (which included not telling me she's gone to the other side of the country to see her Mum for a week, but I apparently DO need to tell her if I want to take them abroad [technically correct, yes but it would at least be nice to tell me they're 350 miles away]) Soon she again gave up work and stopped sending them to second nursery, so on her week I feel they've been missing out on the social interaction with other kids, plus have a completely different schedule to a week at my place.
A few months after deciding to quit work and be a SAHM (her bf doesn't make nearly enough for that), she's now back at work and the kids are shuffled around whoever can look after them while she works. Her bf, his mum, a friend of her's.. whoever's willing, it seems. No mention of them going back to nursery.
She instigated mediation between us to try to end up with the kids M-F but now the tables have turned and if I don't change anything, I'll be the one ending up with them M-F.
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Soo, why am I even writing this post/essay?
Schools, maybe, I think. lol
I get Child Benefit for the boy and she gets it for the girl. So essentially, I'm the one choosing or with more clout to choose whichever school I want our son to go to in September. Back in January I filled in the form and put down the school right next to the nursery they are currently at when with me. Come April, I got what I wanted and he has a place at the school, yay.
How we would carry on doing a week each, I wasn't sure, but obviously using public transport to cover a half hour drive turns it into a 2.5 hour trip to and from school, twice a day, for her and of course for the kids to endure as well. Maybe that would have been enough to make her move back to my town and we'd all be closer again. However, she's "not moving back to [mytown] because it's [mytown]" Lol. So, in mediation I'd even offered to do approx 500 miles a week driving up to hers, picking them up, bringing them to school then taking them home again after. For her. Because she moved away and can't very easily travel. Ridiculous, yes, but this was my way of keeping what I wanted - for us each to keep the kids a week each and for him to go to a good school which he's already expecting to go to.
I don't feel it fair on the kids or one parent to only have them for 2/3 nights a week at the weekend. I don't want to only have them m-f myself and don't want her to either. A whole week. It works. Serious/normal "work"/school week plus the fun weekends together too. Balanced, fair for all; suits me fine. Kids aren't missing out on being with either of us. I'm a real Dad, I have my angels 7 days and nights and do everything for them; they love and depend on me and it's frankly the best thing in the world. I'd be crushed if I ended up seeing them for just two or three nights in a week or even one weekend out of two, yikes. Don't get how some Dads out there don't bust a gut to ensure they get greater access to their kids but hey, different story.
Where I have so far done everything I've been able to do for the children, my infinite capacity to screw everything up has left me without a driving license for three years. Stupid, yes. Happened, yes. So where have we gone from here? Well, it's become quite clear that her move a year ago has been sustained by the fact that I could drive and now that I can't, we're all screwed. My fault or hers for moving away when she couldn't drive?
As their Mum's intent on not moving back to where the kids were born and always lived until she moved away, causing a nursery change, leading to me applying to the school he currently still has a place at, I guess I'll have to move and change everything to suit her. Makes everything easier for her, for the kids.. not exactly for me but if I have to move to a crappier town, I'll have to. We'll lose out on having my parents a mile away from me who are always offering dinner and any other help they can. But then "grandparents shouldn't play such a big role in the kids' lives". Facepalm.
So I applied asap to change schools to [hertown]. 1st June rolls up and .. ah. Too late, the three schools are full, have waiting lists and were filled even in the first round of allocations. He's still got his place for now at the school that I can get to but Mummy can't.
Just yesterday I managed to get a call back from the admissions board to let me know exactly how many places are currently available in which schools in the area. (both my area and hers, or at least close to hers but a bit further than the three we applied for in her town).
So for the third time I'm back to looking at schools, comparing results, trying to find what's best as yes, unfortunately, it seems we're going to have to move them from where they are at nursery now to a different school for him and new nursery for her. And a new house for me, if I can even find a suitable one to move to in that dump of a town.
Either I move and we change schools/nursery, or she can move closer to where he already is meant to be going, or I'm going to have to have the children for mon-fri and her at weekends.
Of the schools that I now know have places, the closest ones to her have been ruled out by her because, like my town, "they're not going to school there because it's [townname]" Someone please tell me that this is daft and which town it is is irrelevant; it's more a question of which school will give them the best education and start in their school lives.
While I've looked at every school in the entire county pretty much, three times over, she's done nothing at all as is evidenced by her total lack of comparative knowledge on the schools. Sure, I get his Child Benefit so my decision is "more important" than hers, but some input from her throughout the process sure would have been more helpful. Or rather, useful input would have been useful, instead of just "they should be with me anyway as I'm their Mum" or "not going to a school in [townname]".
Since starting to write this last night, having a sleep and carrying on, she's actually just this morning said to put down two schools that are in the town next to her that she previously refused to consider, which I guess would then be fine, she's also pushing the idea of home schooling and keeping him on a waiting list at a school closer to her. Trying, desperately to get her way and end up with the kids at school right on her doorstep and I'll just have to move close to her and deal with it. We're only talking like 3/4 miles away; one stop on the train or 20 mins on the bus.. hardly impossible. That's as far as I go now to take them to nursery anyway.
As the kids have already been to nursery for about two years, I'd think they can cope with changing to a different school - they've both managed fine when we changed nurseries and are shining more than ever where they are. Not that I'm against home schooling really, I just think being in an actual school, with other kids would be so much better for them. I know that I don't know everything myself and given that they could go to a multitude of schools really, I don't see the point in doing it at home. How would she/I work? How many friends would the kids have? What about the level of teaching itself...
I better draw this post book to a close, partly because it's so long but also because there's not actually a point to it really. I'm not even asking a question I guess. Just a single 50/50 Dad having a bit of a rant, who's getting too tired of battling ideas that always seem based around what's best/easiest for their Mum, where I'm always prepared to do whatever's best for the children. It shows in how the kids are with me that I'm doing my job as a Dad more than well enough, I've just had enough of being made to feel so shit for everything I do or don't do. Always being threatened that she'll take our daughter away to her Mum's and such.. like huh? You think that's really a good idea, to separate them and move 350 miles away? REALLY?!
Thanks for reading and any snippets of help or wisdom anyone can give would certainly be appreciated, if anyone's gotten this far. I need a coffee now...
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Trying, and struggling, to believe I'm doing what's best for my babies
WishICouldThinkOfAGoodUsername · 18/06/2013 13:02
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