If you're anticipating on settling for joint physical custody, be sure to stipulate in the decree, or at least include in negotiations, that neither parent can move more than X miles away while your child(ren) are still in school and still maintain joint physical custody.
It never occurred to me (or my lawyer, evidently) to include that when I divorced XH (in 1995); now XH is moving 30 miles away and every other week my S16 will have to drive himself 30 miles to school each morning, in the dark, in the weather, on back roads, on the highway. At $3.50/gallon. Plus the odds of my seeing my son during my "off" week is now nil. (Whereas now he stops in whenever he's in the neighborhood.)
And there's not a damn thing I can do about it.
I know it's not the end of the world, but I'm steamed because this feels like such a selfish move on my XH's part - he couldn't have waited 2 more years?? This was NOT a job-related move or anything like that. It was purely an opportunistic one (a piece of property he happened to like went on the market). Plus, I always made sure I lived close to my S's schools and his dad's neighborhood to help make life easier for for my S. Even this apartment I just moved into.
Anyway, there ya have it. Thanks for letting me vent.
