A long one if you have the time..
I am in the unfortunate position of currently separating from my partner (not married) and we have a one year old child. We live together in rented property - the lease ends later this year.
Since the birth of our child, my partner has provided very little financially to our lives, despite me being on maternity leave and am now unemployed. We have a joint bank account together and looking over the past year, I have contributed about 75% to our rent/bills etc. He has also lied several times about how much work he is doing, his job has changed a few times over the year and for many weeks at a time wasn't earning money.
He lied about not receiving wages from his employer when in fact he did receive them, so wasn't contributing to the bank account. He also has a few debts which I have only recently learned of. There were a few occasions that I had to pay for his older child's nursery fees (this is a child from a previous relationship) because he did not have enough money.
I have had to use about £10K out of my savings to keep our family going. And he hasn't shown much thanks for it. Things have gotten bad recently, and our relationship is falling apart. It looks like the only thing to do is separate. This would mean me moving home with our child to Ireland where I am from and the rest of my family lives.
Right now he doesn't seem to have a problem with this, but I'm worried he will kick off in the future about the child's living arrangements. Is it worth involving my solicitor to come to a formal agreement with my partner?
He has been such a lousy father, not abusive but not caring and unable to financially provide. He wasn't the right person to have a child with and I'm sorry I have found this all out now.
Another important thing - his brother is a cocaine addict who I caught taking it in our house a few months ago, in an area easily accessible to the child. I really want to protect my child from him - he hasn't been at our house since the incident. Although I can't trust my partner to keep them away from said brother if I'm not there in the future.
Thanks if you have read all of this - I don't know what my questions are, I just need a bit of advice if anyone has gone through something similar