Sharing childcare

[LeFreakCestChic]

Just wondering what your custody arrangements are.
I read the recent DM Kate Winslet article (can't find it to post) in which she insisted that her kids live with her full time yet have a great relationship with their dads. I have 50/50 with my DCs father as he's a great dad but Christ, I miss them so much it is a physical pain. I feel that maybe I should have insisted they were with me more.
On low days like today, when I won't see them til Tuesday I feel them slipping away from me.
It's shit.

The contact arrangement should work best for the children e.g. strict 50/50 doesn't always work if parents live too far apart for school or if the children are very small. If your DCs are happy and in a good routine, able to get to school on time etc then it's working for them. Do you have other things to do when they're away? Friends to be with?

dh and I were separated for two years and had a 50:50 arrangement (with a split week, so three and a half days with each parent). Our children were I think 4 and 5 when we split. It was very hard, and we both missed them like crazy on the days that they weren't with us but it did work. We both organised our working lives to do late nights on the days that we didn't have them and shorter days when we did, and all our socialising, study, hobbies etc when we were on our own.

I described myself at the time as part time single, part time single mum. But as our relationship healed we did spend more and more time as a family so the gaps weren't as long, and we've been back together for five years now.

I think the most important thing is that our children had proper uninterrupted relationships with both of us. Given that we parented equally before we split I think they would have found it very hard to have seen either of us much less. Certainly we both have very strong relationships with them now (although they are only in their early teens so who knows what might happen over the next few years!).