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Sorry for posting again, my last post seemed to be linked to somebody else's thread :-/
My ex and I were married and we split up in 2006, we sold our house split it 50/50 etc.
We have a daughter together who is now almost 8. (At the time of the split she was 2 and a half).
A year later in 2007 she'd finished her university course and moved 210 miles away with her new boyfriend.
Before she moved down there I tried to convince her not to go, but she went anyway.
Now I have my daughter staying with me usually around one weekend a month and for some of the school holidays.
Before she moved away she said we'd meet half way, or if one of us did the full journey for a pick up the other would do the return journey.
This has not happened. Usually if its the school holidays we can meet on a weekend day and we meet half way, but for the weekends it usually goes that I have to travel all the way there on a Friday afternoon and all the way back on the Friday evening, I usually leave my house around 1pm ( I have an arrangement with work that I can have the afternoons off if I work extra the weeks I'm going to get my daughter), and return home with my daughter at around 10pm in the evening.
It's then straight to bed for my daughter and then I get the Saturday with her, and the Sunday I still have to travel half way to meet her (which is not exactly half way either, 2 hours 10 for me and 1 hour 20 for her). Whenever I suggest that she should come pick her up as I've done the full journey to collect her she flat denies it.
Also I have never in the 5 years that we have been separated had my daughter for Christmas days despite numerous requests for this.
I was wondering is there anything that I could do. Would a court contact order see in favour of me to make the traveling arrangements more fair? I've been doing this since 2007 and it's really starting to annoy me now and I want to do something about it.
Hi Akgoodad
I'm sorry to hear about this situation. In an ideal world your ex would be prepared to contribute more to the travelling than she is doing, for your daughter's sake.
Before going ahead with a court order, have you considered mediation? It may be a better way of trying to sort it out, without the expense if nothing else.
You can get advice about mediation and how it works through the Family Mediation Helpline 0845 60 26 627, http://www.familymediationhelpline.co.uk
- Samaritans – call 116 123
- Shout – text the word ‘Shout’ to 85258
