Left exH because of abusive behaviour - verbal, physical, sulking, controlling. Always feeling hard done by and that everyone is doing him wrong. Took me a long time to find the courage to leave with our child, who has maintained some regular contact.
Recently, he has decided he wants care to be 50:50. And therefore not pay child maintenance.
His reasoning is that he can't afford his mortgage. He chose not to sell the family home and to continue living there.
He feels that the divorce settlement was unfair to him and that I should not have accepted the judge's recommendation but asked to receive less (was basically 50:50) as he brought more into our long marriage.
My issue is, is this a hill to die on? He has persuaded our child that he is struggling and that I am being unfair. We have tried to have a discussion (by email) about it, but it just ends up with him throwing insults and refusing to provide any clear information on his own finances.
Financially, it would probably not make that much difference between recieving child maintenance and splitting all costs 50:50. The reason I feel disinclined to do this is his overt, and in my opinion unjustified, financial resentment towards me. In the past, he has always declined to contribute towards out-of-the-ordinary expenses such as school trips. His income is probably 3 times my own. I hate the idea of having to increase any contact with him in order to negotiate and liaise about expenses. Am I morally or legally entitled to refuse what he is asking?