Hello posted in divorce already but had no reply yet so just posting for traffic please.
Just after some factual info/ rather than opinions on what people consider moral etc.
John and Sarah are married (4 years married, 4 years cohabiting before that) John has 2 children in their early teens from a previous relationship and he and Sarah have one 2 year old together.
Sarah does 99% of the raising of their 2 year old and works part time. John works full time in a very busy work environment. He earns around £30k more than Sarah.
House jointly owned (Sarah paid the deposit out of inheritance) and both contribute equally to the bills and mortgage.
Would John be entitled to more of the assets than Sarah simply because he has more children to provide for than she does? Would step children count as 'children of the family' even if:
- they live with their mother most of the time staying with John and Sarah a couple of nights a week. Mum is resident parent and owns her own home.
- They do not call Sarah mum.
- Sarah does not contribute toward them financially, doesn't buy clothes, doesn't pay toward maintenance, school uniform etc.. other than sharing the bills with John like council tax, elec, gas etc..
- Sarahs relationship with step children is very different to her relationship with her biological 2 year old.
- Sarah makes no parental decisions regarding her step children and rarely cares for them alone.
This seems to suggest step children in this case wouldn't be considered children of Sarah's family when determining financial split but just wondered what other people may know/have experienced.
Likelihood is their 2 year old will be living with Sarah and seeing John similar amounts to his older children.
www.2drj.com/post/in-the-era-of-blended-families-what-constitutes-a-child-of-the-family-divorce-and-inheritance#:~:text='Child%20of%20the%20family'%20is,a%20child%20of%20their%20family