Increasing access time? Unfair?

[Janus]

so my only option was moving in with a friend who had a spare bedroom his apartment. This was ~100km away.

Bet you could have gotten a place for less than you are paying in child support now.

but I was reluctant to have too much time with my son, as he had to share a bed with me.

In most of the world, people share beds.

So opinion: is asking for one monday school drop off a month unfair?

What does "fair" even mean in this context?

It is fair for you to ask.
It is fair for her to say no.

I pay child support below the guideline - we decided this together (I have the conversation saved)

The saved conversation doesn't really matter, you could still end up paying CS at guideline. Well, not totally true, the saved conversation saves you from retroactive support, but you could certainly be forced to pay guidelines going forward.

as I have access costs that are approximately $400 a month and I purchase his clothes, coats, boots, pay for sports etc. so this will have no impact on my child support.

You cannot choose to pay for clothes, coats, boots, etc. instead of child support. The primary parent gets to buy that stuff. You get to give her money to buy that stuff.

Your access costs may seem high, but after your access gets reduced to every other weekend, they will be much more reasonable.

She is afraid ill meet that threshold and therefore decrease my time.

So the question remains, is my ask fair (re: one monday drop off) to her and my son?

Honestly, she's not going to allow it. Getting child support is a sweet gig. There is no way she is going to jeopardize it.

I think your first step is to stop being 100km away. Your kid is almost a teenager, he's not going to be a big fan of that drive in the very near future.

[Googlelawstudent]

Berner Faith, Thanks for your response and suggestion

Edit: I guess I should add - mom works seasonally, 6 months a year, and works weekends, if that makes a difference. and My move is slightly closer, but not significantly. I couldn't move too far as my roommates still had to be able to travel to work.

[Googlelawstudent]

Thank you for your prompt response. Two questions:

1. Addressing your point 2: Does the fact that she never had him weekends for 4 years work in my favour?
2. Addressing your point 3: does moving to a better environment for my son not count as a material change? Sorry if that's a dumb question, lol, im not 100% sure on what a material change would consist of.

And to your last point, that is certainly fair. I am just looking for semi-objective opinions. Ex had a tendency of saying no at first, just to say yes later when it works in her interest. So should it ever worst case scenario result in court, Im curious if asking has any value, and like you said, is it reasonable.

[Berner_Faith]

You pay below guideline, Mom has no weekend access and you moved away. You stated you’re moving into a bigger place, is this closer to the child? You have to offer mom something if you want her to budge. Maybe one full weekend a month in exchange for you dropping off Monday two weekends a month? I totally understand why mom is reluctant because she has no “down” time with the child... it’s all school days for her and you have all the “fun” time.


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[rockscan]

There are a few arguments not in your favour...

1. You chose to move (regardless of reasonable arguments, you put yourself in this situation).
2. She has no weekends with the child.
3. There hasn’t been a material change from the first change.

That said, it isn’t unreasonable since it is in the best interest of the child but then again, best interest could also extend to him seeing mom.

Ask yourself the golden question: is this the hill to die on?

[Googlelawstudent]

Hi All,

I will try to keep this as short as possible, but details are important.

I have been separated for 5 years. At the time of separation, our child was 5 years old, we had him 50-50 on a 2-2-5 schedule. She moved in with a friend, I with my parents, we were low income.

One year later, I have to move - parents selling their housing. Given my income and rental costs, I couldn't find my own place, so my only option was moving in with a friend who had a spare bedroom his apartment. This was ~100km away. Ex and I decided that she would have our son for the school week and I every weekend. This continued for quite some time, but with my time with him increasing slowly (the odd long weekend here and there) but I was reluctant to have too much time with my son, as he had to share a bed with me.

Given the $$ housing market, finding a bigger place to move or even closer to him with my income felt impossible. I was barely making ends meet as it was. However, after about 3.5 years, I finally save/make enough for first and last month rent to move into a bigger place for my son and my roommates (still cant afford my own place).

Now the schedule is more time: Me (fri - sun) every weekend, all long weekends (including PA days), and 4 days during times on non-school weeks (e.g. summers, march break, christmas holidays etc) + 2 weeks at the end of the summer.

There has been the odd time where something exceptional happened (weather, family emergencies, tentative school strike) where I ended up taking him to school Monday morning. I really enjoyed this and my son, now 10, stated he did too. It really felt like my Sunday time with him wasn't just cut and the transition was easier for him, as it cut his driving by a quite a bit. (mom living with new partner for 1.5 years, so my sons drive to school is 45 minutes - this means hes saving a 1.5 hours drive on sunday and a 45 min drive in the morning to a one hour drive Monday morning from my place). Sundays are hard because we just spend it getting ready for drop off and waiting to hear the time (ex usually tells me the time shes available the same day).


So opinion: is asking for one monday school drop off a month unfair? I asked to do it at a higher frequency in the past and she said no, as then she doesnt have any time with him on the weekend, so that's why I thought maybe once a month.

For context, we have no court order, everything has been done independently. I pay child support below the guideline - we decided this together (I have the conversation saved) as I have access costs that are approximately $400 a month and I purchase his clothes, coats, boots, pay for sports etc. so this will have no impact on my child support. I worry that she thinks im doing this to avoid support, as when i had asked for increase time in the past, she brought up that I can't stop my payment - I assured her that I am not interested in doing that. Ironically, when I count my overnights from the last year, I actually already have him 40% of the time, but I dont want to say that to her in the event my suspicion is correct, and she is afraid ill meet that threshold and therefore decrease my time.

So the question remains, is my ask fair (re: one monday drop off) to her and my son?

Thanks.