Thinking of leaving DH. What would happen re DD?

[cardamomginger]

Can't be arsed to namechange.

I am thinking of leaving DH. I don't want to talk about my relationship with him right now, although I think I will be posting about it in the next few months.

Right now, I am trying to get my head round the practical side of what would happen if we did split and then divorce. My main priority is DD. She is 3.5 years old, so let's say she'd be around 4 if/when it happens. She won't yet be in school - she is due to start Reception in 2015. There are no issues wrt to DH's parenting, neither are there any concerns regarding mine. We would live in close proximity to one another. I am a SAHM. What's the 'usual' outcome? Would she spend half her time living with DH and half with me?

Can't believe I am actually posting this....

If you're in England or Wales the length of your marriage plus any seamless cohabitation will have a significant bearing on how the finances are split and what counts as marital assets/debts (unless there is loads of money to spare once both your needs are taken care of).

Really what Offred said. If you can sort things out amongst yourself then do so. The one piece of advice that I would give you though is not to get too carried away with making plans if your husband really has NO clue what you're planning. If you present him with your plans for contact, he is much more likely to react badly and the situation can deteriorate very quickly.

Finding out about your admin options in the event of separation and eventual divorce may seem daunting now. But will help you in the long run as you sort out whether that is the way forward. Because you are likely to feel stronger by having an escape plan (thought through when calm) when it comes to tackling whatever it is that is wrong and deciding if it is worth another chance.

no absolutely! this is just so I have an idea of what I might be letting myself in for. i tend to panic if i don't know what the possible parameters of a situation are. want to try and force him into couples' therapy first. conversations about DD are quite a way in the future.

And what does the Gillick competence say?

I feel very strongly that asking a child her or his preferences about who they want to live with is very unfair on the child.

Children don't always know what is best for them. Plus they often switch their preferences between their parents when they are young and to ask them to make a decision of this magnitude based on the whim of the moment is horrible.

Asking them to pick a favourite can produce massive feelings of guilt in the child.

Where do you get the idea that 50 50 is normal Qix? Normal in what sense?

It certainly isn't usual when one parent has been the clear primary carer.

Qix are you suggesting that an 11yo child should have no say in what happens to them? I'm not saying they should make the decisions. But they most certaily should have an input.

Nobody is asking them to pick a favourite fgs - framing it like that would clearly be totally inappropriate!

However saying "Daddy could pick you up from school onTuesdays and take you back to his for tea. That will be fun won't it? Or would you prefer Wednesdays when you have swimming so he can take you?" is an entirely different matter

aww op

sorry to hear this

I left exdh when ds was only about 6 months old, so I appreciate a lot younger than your dd

exH was not interested in DS for first few years, contact was sporadic as was maintenance, it was not easy

but things are better now, DS is nearly 8, and sees his dad once a week, on Saturdays, with 2 sleepovers a month, fri evenings then he brings him home sat evening. its his dads choice, i'd be happy with more contact, and find it sad really that he CBA to see his child more often but hey ho.

PS I don't know how you are feeling atm, but when I left exh i thought I would never be happy again but I re married, had another dc (dd who is now 4) and due dc3 in 4 weeks! and still happier with new (ish) DH than I ever thought possible.

GOOD LUCK xx

From what I see around me and read.

Obviously talking about what day of the week they want to see their dad would be fine, it makes me wonder of you're deliberately misunderstanding me that you would think otherwise.

All this talk of 'one evening a week and an overnight every other weekend' sounds like something out of the ark, unless you're married to someone who has no interest in his kids, in which case it's fair enough.

Thanks balenciaga . Really pleased it worked out for you and GOOD LUCK in 4 weeks time!

At 42, I fear I will be pretty much at the bottom of the food chain. I guess it's not over until it's over though!

I'm sorry if I seem to be being obtuse Qix. I was just puzzled as to why you would think including a child under 14's opinions on the arrangements amounted to "Asking them to pick a favourite" or "make a decision of this magnitude based on a whim" when clearly it needs to be handled more subtly than that

IME 50/50 parenting is very unusual - often the person who was the primary care-giver when the parents were together continues to be so after the split. My exH has the kids 3 nights a week but I still do 90% of school runs / drop offs / all the stuff that goes to day-to-day living than he does. It's unusual for a father to have the kids that much in my exerience. Not because he doesn't care. but because he has not arranged his life around the kids like I have - just like when we were together!

Are you planning to go back to work at the time of the spit?
That might affect what you propose - partly how you split the time, but also it might keep the discussion a bit theoretical until you know yours hours.

With my 5yo (we split 6 months ago at 4.5yo) we are very very flexible.
We agreed 4 days (me) 3 days (him) for the paperwork.
That's literally all the Statement of Arrangements says.

I work away a lot, so I basically have her every day by default, unless I'm away - when she goes to her dad. That's between 0 and 4 nights each week. When it's 0, I take a night to myself and propose one evening to him. I'm the one in control. Weekends, she's with me unless I say otherwise, or he proposes something. I'd only say no if it was a double booking.

We manage this mostly indirectly via a shares iphone calendar, as I prefer to minimise time talking /texting him.

It works. But it would suit everyone!

Oh and who they prefer... She has always preferred me, but not in a massively anti-daddy way. Tbh - I think you have to set that aside. She prefers me - but she still likes being with him. And they won't develop their relationship if they're not together.

The OPs child is 3.5.

I have no idea what to do re work tbh. I have had a lot of health problems since giving birth, that have contributed towards me staying at home. Hopefully these should be behind me now.

By the time I have paid for childcare, I don't see how I would have any money left at the end of the week, never mind enough to support me and DD. I should imagine that even on the days that DH had DD I would still need to have her until he finished work and would certainly need to have her on 'his' days all day during school holidays.

Seriously, how the hell do people do this, if you don't have family to rely on (and I don't)? A lot of my friends are high earners and even so, once they've paid for nursery, or nanny, au pair, childcare to fill in for after school and holidays they have sod all left. One friend actually pays £50 each week for the privilege of going to work!

You can get child tax credits and working tax credits. They're a big help.

I only know one couple who went down the 50:50 route. Their jobs were similar and they were prepared to live very near to each other. He fought for it and got it, though I don't think it was what his ex wanted.

It's all very well saying things like "it sounds like something out of the Ark" until you break it down into practicalities. Oh, and, you know, think about it from the children's point of view. What is best for the children is often not being carted from one place to another or living out of two separate homes for equal amounts of time. As Imperial says, that can work if both parents are highly cooperative and live very close by. One parenting book I read about divorce memorably said that upon separation you do not split the children 50 50 as though they were a record collection.

I don't know anybody who has had 50/50 care. I'd not even heard of such a thing till I came on MN and wouldn't think it was a very good idea at all. I'd be very worried about how the mortgage and all the bills are going to be paid.

My BF shares care with his exW 50/50. They

a. get on well and so can cooperate on swapping / helping each other / changing arrangements
b. live ½ a mile apart
c. the kids are much older and can pop back and forth as they want

The closest to 50/50 I know other than that is my own kids as described above. It is most defnitely not the norm

We originally had my DH's two DC (my DSC) every other weekend plus one night every week. That seems to be typical IME. Over the years it has increased so we have them every Weds to Fri and every other Weds to Sun. DH drives past where they live to come home from work so it's easy for him to pick them up on the way through and take them to school the next morning.

In my experience, 50/50 is very much where discussions start and then things like work commitments, living arrangements, support etc come in and the routine is then established.

I think it is recommended you work up to this though, so it's not like it would be in place immediately you separated (especially as it sounds like this would make your DD very unhappy) but if your DH was keen and you have no concerns about the care he would provide and her safety, wouldn't your DD benefit from spending equal time with both parents.

It is hard as hell though - there is no denying it - I didn't have my children so that they could spend half their life living elsewhere but at the same time, they deserve a relationship with their father so I have to suck it up.

Good luck OP!

Thanks cardamom. And of course you won't be at the bottom of the food chain, if you do decide on leaving you will eventually find some one again, if you want to. And tbh soon after I left ex I realised was the happiest id been in ages, years really, as Yes I was alone with a baby, but I was free,. I no longer had to walk on eggshells around him, be frightened and belittled by him and pick up after after him like the man child he was! (Obv not suggesting your h is like this btw but clearly there are aspects of him you are unhappy with)

DH travels quite a bit for work, and I basically live for the times he is away. It is bliss!

I've got the name of a divorce lawyer from a friend, who was extremely happy with the job they did. So that's a good step. If I go down this route, it's going to cost a fucking fortune, isn't it? How the hell does anyone, let alone a SAHP, afford to get divorced!?!?!