My ex husband has dropped the bombshell on me this week that due to the "increasingly high cost of living" in the UK, which is "damaging his mental health" he is disappearing off to Thailand to be with his Thai bride, leaving behind his 9 year old son, who has complex special needs and has been out of school for 6 months and counting. He currently only sees his son on a Sunday, does a great Disney Dad impression and has had no day to day involvement in the real parenting for the last 7 years. He's not got him up dressed, and taken him to school once in all that time for example. He chose to live miles away instead.
Now whilst on one level I'll be very glad to see the back of the lying, cheating abusive b**stard, his son adores him and is going to be devastated. Plus there's the small issue of the "high cost of living" that he is leaving me with, to raise his son by myself whilst trying to hold down a full time job, which I'm now off sick for due to the fact my son is no longer in school and I can't juggle that and working.
I could write a whole other post about that but the purpose of this one is to seek some info about my rights to stop my ex swanning in and out of my son's life as he sees fit, as his email to me said "of course, I will be back to see my son in the school holidays, work allowing" Oh, of course! Never mind the lasting mental damage that will do to my son.
Does anyone have any experience of a parent leaving the country and expecting to come and go as he pleases in their child's life? How would the courts view this, especially in light of my son's complex special needs, where he finds change challenging and all the medical and education professionals already think just our current set up is damaging my son, never mind this new one. What about Child Maintenance, would I still be entitled to this?
Any advice would be great, I've got a call in to my solicitor but some real life experiences would be great to hear, thank you.