I often find myself wondering if people properly appreciate what child contact actually is. What the purpose is.
It's for the child to have contact with their nonresident parent. That's seen as important and positive for the child.
Frankly, palming a kid off to a stepmum for the entirety of every Saturday morning so the parent she's supposed to be having contact with can ferry her sister to an activity and then spend the morning doing what he likes (drinking coffee, playing on his phone, maybe going to the gym, etc) and then come home (probably to spend not that much time with her and then drop both girls at their mum's every second Saturday) is not what contact is for.
I often (in my own household as well as in general) find myself wondering why some NRPs kid themselves with an illusion of contact counted in time their children are unconscious in the house (so overnights) rather than actual quality time with the parent they're supposed to be building a relationship with. Honestly, a couple of hours of time out with their father would be much better for my SC than them being dropped off, plonked in front of the tv, fed separately and on their own, put to bed (with minimal involvement), given breakfast and plonked in front of the tv and then dropped at school (what actually happens at midweek contact). They might physically be in the house, but the actual social and physical contact with their father is pretty minimal. He kids himself that all is wonderful but it seems to serve his psychological and social need to pretend to the world he's an amazing father and little else.
Oh, and it's time off for his ex too. I'm sure she values that. But that isn't actually what contact is for either.
I regularly find myself wondering why child contact is arranged around the needs and wants of the parents rather than in any way being about the children. They're almost an afterthought in my SC's contact decisions.
In contrast, my ex and I have tried to arrange contact to suit our son. Rather than a 50-50 arrangement which means DS has to sleep in different houses all the time (which he didn't want), he sleeps here the majority of the time and only stays with his dad every other weekend. His dad lives 5 minutes walk away (a deliberate decision) and DS sees his dad after school 2 days every week. He walks there from school, hangs out with his dad (who arranges his work so he's able to be properly present for DS), has dinner and either hangs out some more or his dad takes him to his hobby. Then he comes back here (which is home to him), has a chat with me, gets ready for bed and such like. It's not perfect or anything, but we are trying to do our best to ensure quality and meaningful contact so he can have the best possible relationship with his father.
My H mocks my ex for 'hardly ever seeing his son' on the basis that he has him 3/14 nights (and often will discuss half terms with DS and decide together that he won't have (m)any overnights but will see his dad for proper, quality time. My H feels superior because his children sleep her more often than DS does at his dad's. But if we count it in time spent interacting with (and having meaningful contact with) their fathers, rather than time unconscious in the house, then my ex has far more time with DS. Ignoring where he sleeps, DS does generally spend 50% of his non-school awake and interacting time at each of his parents' houses.
My SC might sleep here more often, but they spend much of the time in bed (11-12 hours of sleeping a night because they're younger than DS). A Friday where they're dropped off at 6.30 by their mum and are asleep by 7.30 (and it's not an hour of time with daddy - it's them just getting ready for bed while he stares at his phone, a quick goodnight and no more) serves only to give him the illusion of contact and his ex a Friday night off. It's not really about the kids at all. And still, my husband whinges that I won't just look after them for him on the weekends they're here so he can go out with friends (missing bedtime), go on long bike rides, go to the gym etc. And even if he's present in the house, they're plonked in front of screens so he can play videogames himself or play his guitar or whatever.
And I sit there wondering whether he has any idea at all what the point of contact actually is.