Hi everyone,
Sorry, this will be a long one. I’m in a new situation and I’m not sure how to deal with it so was looking to get other people opinions/experiences.
Split up with my ex a few months ago. Not his decision. Mine. We share 2 children and I assumed we would be able to co-parent happily. However he’s becoming more and more difficult by the day. I’ve already been as understanding as possible and think the next step would be visiting a solicitor but I don’t know if this is extreme.
When we initially split up and he moved out, he used 3 weeks of his annual leave immediately after, to ‘get over the split’ He didn’t tell me this and it only came out after I requested he book some time off for the kids holidays. This meant that he had no more holidays left over to take the children during the summer holidays or any other time for that matter.
He works Monday - Friday so I had agreed he would have them at the weekend. Ideally I would like him to have them Friday evening through to Sunday evening but he wasn’t happy with this and said he’d have them Saturday overnight until Sunday. Now he’s changing his mind again and contacting me to say when he will and won’t have them. This weekend for instance, he’s supposed to have them overnight but has said he can’t (won’t say why) but has said he’ll come and take them out Sunday during the day. I’m not happy with this and I’ve told him the same. I don’t think it’s fair that he gets to pick and choose when he has the kids depending what he has on in his personal life. I have no choice when I have my time with the children, they’re my responsibility and I’m happy to have them here but am I wrong in thinking I’m entitled to have free time to myself too? Why do I feel like a babysitting service for him?
I’m already furious that I’ll have no help over the summer holidays and now he's trying to do even less! I don’t want to go down the route of telling him he can’t see them, but if I don’t, he’s going to continue doing what he wants.
Should I visit a solicitor? Would they be able to put something in place that he’d need to stick by? I don’t want to waste my time and money if he’ll just continue doing as he pleases.
Thanks xx