50/50 Child splits

[Maloney]

So after some advice from here, Ash a solicitor and good barrister, my stbx has changed her path of outright court, false DV claims etc to now wanting to settle outside of court.

I’m having to flex to a lot of her requirements, but it means I can see my daughter 50:50.

She is 4 years old, and will be starting school, I’m extremely close to her and she always wants me over her mum.

What’s the splits people have used and what worked, didn’t work etc.

I’ll do a full write up of what happened and how I got to this stage after a navigate through the next but.

We are currently finalising the agreement and then will send it into court, along with a parenting plan to get a consent order.

 

[JX11]

2-2-5-5, holidays split week by week.
Our kids are little , my ex wanted 1 week ok 1 week off but I didn’t want to not see my kids for that long a period especially as they are so young.

 

[Ash]

At age 4 I would do 2-2-5-5. The way that works is

Week 1: Friday from school to Wednesday morning school drop off parent Dad. Wednesday from school to Monday morning school drop off Mum.

Week 2: Monday from school to wednesday morning school drop off Dad. Wednesday from school to Friday morning school drop off Mum

And repeat throughout term time. Or vice versa.

Basically one of you has Monday Tuesday every week. The other has wednesday thursday every week. (2 nights each) And you each have a week-end on alternate weeks. When it's your week-end, your 2 midweek nights tacks onto the 3 night week-end so you get 5 nights.

And half the school holidays. If you want to just agree those between you that's fine, but I would at least have a line in an order saying when the school holidays start and end, to avoid arguments about that. Eg school holidays start from the time the school day ends on the last day of term, and end at the time school starts on the first day of the next term.

That way it's clear when the term-time schedule ends and the half the holidays start.

So for Easter (which is two weeks) it is actually more like 18 nights as it includes 3 weekends between term ending and starting. How you divide that time is up to you - unless you want it defined in the order (which might be an idea).

For half terms it helps to have them defined. Eg half terms keep to the usual week-end schedule with 2.5 days each consecutive to the week-end and changeover midday on the wednesday.