@Charmumof1
Right I don’t even know where to start.
Me and my little girls dad broke up just over 3 weeks ago. We had a plan in place that he was going to be picking her up after nursery having her till 7 and then dropping her back to me and then having her 9-7 on a Saturday and then every other Sunday. All this week he’s dropped her back at about 5:30 even though she finishes nursery at 5 and he’s turned round and said that he’s not having her on a Sunday because he needs ‘his time’. Saturday I get a phone calling saying that he’s going to be taking me to court for full custody and he wants my little girl to have nothing to do with me. He only has a 1 bed flat and works full time (early morning gets back late). He’s also turned round and said that my child maintence will be going to my mum and I have to prove to her what I’m spending it on with proof of purchase? Can he do this????
He won't get full custody and neither will you. Clearly there is a precedent for both of you to provide some childcare and therefore to deviate from a starting point of 50/50 to one parent getting all the custody not only makes absolutely no sense but would do unnecessary damage to your daughter.
Also, on child maintenance, he can't do that. The CMS will tell him where its going to be paid, thank you very much. If it's 50/50 shared care then there won't be anything to pay but otherwise one or other of you will pay to the other depending on who has the childs more nights (at the moment that's you).
Some things in your original post don't stack up though and also there are some gaps in info. First of all, why are the housing arrangements as they are? Do you own a property together? If so, how big is it? Why is he in a one bed flat, is that all he can afford and if so why as his needs are for a two bed flat? Etc. And married or not?
In terms of what doesn't stack up, why is he doing every single nursery pick up and then handing DD over to you, whether it's 5:30 or 7? And how is he working full time yet able to pick DD up and get her to you so quickly? Is work, nursery and your home all really close? You'll probably have to accept that this will need to change because ultimately he's taking more of a hit in his ability to work than you are whilst paying you all the maintenance. It might be why he's being passive aggressive about the arrangement and thinking he should have full custody because us men can be sodding useless at explaining our problems!
Suggestion. Get a mediator and hammer out shared care that works for both of you so that you each do your fair share of childcare and can both also work and make the money you need. He needs to lose the option to drop his DD back early to you without notice and you need to lose the option to depend on him for every single pickup. The suggestion that pickups and drop offs are done at the nursery between the two of you is a good one.