Hi,
I'm new here and looking for some advice! Me and my boy's (aged 7 and 5) dad spilt up around 4 years ago, I moved out of our home with the kids 3.5 years ago and started my new life. I took nothing but mine and the kids clothes and asked for a very small payment to get me off the mortgage.
I have since met a new partner and we are a very happy, active and busy family!
The boys dad has had them every other weekend since we split, from Friday after school to Sunday late afternoon. He also facetimes them whenever the kids ask, however no conversation is ever really had he just sits in silence watching them play.
I have said from day one he can pick them up after school any day except Mon and Thurs (they have clubs) and take them to dinner or the park etc however he has never done this and blames the fact he has no money for petrol to do this. This is an absolute lie, and I even offered for him to pay me less maintenance so he could afford to take them out which he declined.
Over the past 6 months he has demanded to spend every evening on the phone with the kids. When I have declined due to us being busy he has become quite nasty and says I'm stopping him seeing his kids.
I have allowed him to have them numerous times on weekends that are not his due to his family birthday parties etc however this is not good enough. Me and my partner both work full time so only have an hour or two in the evenings with them before bed which we have to get in clubs, dinner, homework baths etc.
He has become so vile to me I told him all communication now needs to go through my partner however he has started to do the same to him. He messages numerous times a day and its becoming a massive problem in our lives. We have offered to have offered for him to facetime every Wed and then again if we are free over the weekend however this is not good enough.
I genuinely don't know what to do now and am worried it will get between me and my partner. Every day there is something new that he is complaining about or asking of us and its exhausting.
Sorry for the long post and any advice is greatly appreciated!