My ex has always had sporadic contact with our children since we broke up 5 years ago, he has been more out than in, he sees the children once a year for a few months then gets bored and disappears only to resurface again a year later asking to see them again. He hasn’t seen them since January, no reason for this, he used a lot of excuses around that time not to see them, mainly Covid related till it just fizzled out and we stopped hearing from him. Since we split up he’s never once been to the children’s school or had them overnight. Like I said he has not seen them since January now, last night I received a text message at midnight (!) asking if he could buy the children phones so he can contact them himself. The message was poorly written and had a spelling mistake so I think he may have been drunk, now I will point out I’ve asked him in the past to call the children regularly if he won’t be seeing them regularly (how only ever wanted to see them once a fortnight for a few hours) he did this once and then never called again.
Aibu to say no to this? My children not old enough to have their own phones and I wasn’t going to buy them any until they start secondary school. Also for the fact he has had no contact since January and he was texting me at midnight which is inappropriate. I don’t want a 9 and 7 year old having their own phones.