Partner has 2 kids DD 8 and DS 5, he has them every other week, Friday to Friday and alternate Tuesdays. In France, so kids don't have school on Wednesdays. He lives 90 minutes away and his kids go to school there, mother also lives locally to him - has to for school. She is known to be a fairly lax mother, but not abusive or anything, but unlikely to let him have more custody - he would be destroyed if he had them much less, and I'm definitely not asking for that. He is a great Dad.
I have 2 DDs 8 & 9 years old, I have them full time, except every other weekend and half the holidays. I teach part time (18 years in the job) and have 2 businesses where I live, neither of which are transferable.
We both come from large families and would like to have a large blended family. I come from a large blended family and it was incredibly positive, but my dad was a widower when he remarried my step-mum so the situations are not quite the same.
So far I can only really see 2 options.
Option 1 We don't live together for the next decade or so, he has one week in his house (minus Tuesday) and one week in ours (again minus Tuesday).
Option 2 I sell up house and business one, close business 2, give up teaching job and retrain. We move in with him.
Option 1 is clearly the less awful for me and my kids, but long term maybe not that great either. If he could get full custody he would move in with us as we have room for everyone, but currently with schooling and his custody arrangement that's just not possible.
Can anyone see a third option of how we could make this work?
Many thanks.