Can my partner make me travel every weekend to hand kids over if he moves away?

[Joanne2015]

I’m in the midst of separating from my partner. He has openly stated he may move back to England. If that happens, he thinks he will see the children every weekend which obviously isn’t really practical. That would mean I have no weekends with the children and only during the week, which is hard due to work and school..so I feel I won’t get any “free time” with them. Also his mum stated I’d need to meet him half way to every Friday and Sunday to hand over, again this isn’t practical in finishes or time every weekend for the next 14 years or so. Anyone else has to do this? I wasn’t going to go to courts over custody as I was sure we could work out 50/50, as I wanted him to still have a relationship with them but he thinks he’ll live away now.

I know someone who moved away and they had to share the driving. One picked up one way and the other picked up the other way. I guess this is the same as meeting halfway in terms of miles and time. This was court ordered. It was EOW though, not every weekend. And a journey of 1hr.

That sounds really selfish on his part. What about them chilling at home, playing footie, swimming, going to parties & seeing friends? He wants to remove them from their home every weekend? I can't see it being agreed in a family court.

If he wants to see them he can travel and stay in a hotel nearby.

A relatives dp who moved away (also from Scotland to England) travels up every other weekend and books a premier inn near to where they live for the weekend. It's much better that way as they can still do their weekend clubs, he can take them to any parties etc but still has quality time. Also means the children don't spend long amounts of time in the car.
He brings them down to where he lives for longer amounts of time in the school holidays.

No court would agree to you having to do all the week day slog and him enjoying every weekend of downtime with them - it doesn't work, like that Most arrangements would allow for the parents to have EOW so you both get the same downtime with the kids. If he is deciding to move away from them meaning he can't help out with week days school drop offs etc then he has to be flexible around you.

Also, speaking from experience, it's not long before the kids have activities on the weekends, so they won't want to miss out on those if they have to travel miles away every weekend

I moved countries (not in the UK), I paid all my travel and the kids' travel expenses and no he cannot do this unless you let him.

His choice, he stumps up the cost. Let him rant. Ignore his mother completely. Grey rock.