Am I being selfish?
My exh has just asked to share 50% contact with our dd. We've been divorced for 8 years and our dd is now 14. We divorced due to a dv incident.
When we first divorced I offered him as much contact as he wanted, however he only wanted to see her eow, primarily due to work and him not wanting to take a step down in his career. As she's got older, his relationship with her has improved. I try to be charitable and put this down to the fact that some people just don't enjoy small children. In reality my opinion is that she's far more self sufficient and less 'work'
I feel uncomfortable with his request for a few reasons, firstly he met a woman in January, and she moved into his house a few weeks ago with her 2 dd (who see their df 50% of the time), this woman is a stranger, someone she's (and my ex) have only known for 4 months. My ex has had countless gf's, who would always be introduced to dd, within weeks of them meeting. He's never been more than a few weeks without a gf, this will be the 3rd woman he's moved in with since we split.
I think because he's now got a live in gf who also has dc, it won't be him looking after dd, the new woman works from home and chances are he won't be changing his lifestyle to accommodate my dd, his new gf probably will.
I recently found out my dd has been self harming, I've arrange some private counselling which is due to start this week.
This may, or may not be related to the self harming, but I fostered a little girl a few years ago. Un- be known to me, she had severe behavioural issues, and my dd bore the brunt of this, and she ended up having to leave and go to a specialist placement which my dd took quite hard. We still see her, but I know my dd still misses her a lot.
My ex has always been quite self centred, his wants have always come first. He would refuse to contribute to things like school informs, saying he had no money, but in the same week buy a new car, or tell me he couldn't afford to contribute towards her hobby and then book a holiday for himself. He's happy for her to tag along to what he's doing, but will rarely put himself out for her, such as driving to her friends house. It's only recently I've managed to convince him to take her to her hobby on a weekend
He also puts very few boundaries in place, she can do what she wants when she's with him.
I'm really trying to put her first, but I don't see any benefit to a 50/50 split for her. I'm not sure if this is my selfishness in not wanting her to go, or that i have valid reasons. I know if I asked her she'd not tell me what she wanted, she'd just try and keep the peace and not want to upset him.
I've told him we'll have a conversation this week but my head is a muddle and I want to do what's right for dd, not what's right for me or my ex.