Should maintenance be paid by the mother when the father has the children full time?

[Davegrohlsbabymama]

Should a mother pay maintenance to the father when he has the children full time, except EOW and half the holidays. If she keeps a child longer in the holidays, normally 50/50 split and she didn’t want to return the child should she bill the father for her extra costs?

Yes maintenance should be paid by the mother in these circumstances.

Yes, whoever has the child full time or most of the time should be paid maintenance

She should pay maintenance obviously (as should any parent in this situation)
she didn’t want to return the child should she bill the father for her extra costs?
erm no, if she wants to have more time, this should be discussed and negotiated, not just selfishly decided on the fly

The mother sounds horribly transactional.

is it your partner’s ex that has committed these crimes?

In principle there's no reason why a mother shouldn't pay maintenance if the children live with the father most of the time. What is reasonable depends on how much each parent earns (as is also the case when it's the father paying maintenance to the mother).

Just use CMS and they review it annually based on current wage, number of overnights etc. the parent deciding to move the goalposts by keeping the child would have to apply to CMS to vary the amount not ambush the other parent by changing arrangements last minute. CMS has a lot of faults but it’s useful at removing the need for direct contact.

The mother should pay maintenance according to the overnights she does.
she shouldn’t ‘take’ extra overnights suddenly without prior agreement. If they both agree, or a court agrees, for a change in the number of overnights per year then it might move her onto a lower maintenance banding. But the day to day expenses for the child are the responsibility of whoever has the child in their care that day, unless they agree between them otherwise.

Yes
and
No

Yes, there is banding for maintenance based on over nights per year. If that increases, maintenance decreases

What a dreadful way to discuss a child's life. They aren't a commodity to be traded or returned or billed for.

Yes on the surface she should be paying maintenance & if the number of nights increases then the payments would go down.

I don't think anyone should be 'billing' anyone. It needs to go through court and have an arrangement that puts the child first.

How depressing to be talking about Children like this.

Yes maintenance should be paid to the parent who has the child the most

No, mother should not bill dad if she chose to have child more than normal during the holidays

Absolutely. He should apply to CMS if she won’t pay up.

Yes, any parent who is liable should pay maintenance. Why would a mother be any different?

No, neither parent can keep the child longer than the agreed time, and bill the other.

The absent parent should pay the other parent for half their time in childcare. Go through CMS.

Maintenance rules should be the same regardless of whether the non-resident parent is the mother or the father (or the second mother or the second father, in same sex relationships).

No not my partner. Just a very good friend. The mum returned one child last week but kept the other. Still not returned even though 19:00 was agreed. And school is back tomorrow. Mum isn’t working. It’s not UK so CMS not involved.

I agree. I just put it bluntly. Mother asked for more time my friend agreed it was ok but when it came to picking DC up DC was suddenly ill again and must go to hospital and nothing was wrong.
Now she is late today, my friend asked for his DC to come home yesterday and got no reply.
She is now claiming she has no money for petrol and cannot drive.
It is only one child she behaves this way with.