Thanks so much MB. This thread is almost over so a couple of updates: 1) D and I have a special Wednesday evening dinner date after a class she takes. 2) just responded to an email from stbx... set a boundary which I'm guessing he will roll his eyes at but I don't care:
When he took D for vacation week in Feb, he "offered" to take her for a full week (not just the week days), mainly because it suited plans he had with his family but I'm sure he thought he was doing it for my benefit. Fast forward to upcoming vacation week, "claire, since I took D for a full weekend in Feb, I thought you would do the same now."
So, generous offers from him come with expectations of payback. Noted. I replied that I was surprised, because I didn't realize that his offer came with an expectation, and that I didn't think that was a precedent we wanted to set. That will bristle him I'm sure.
But since I've already requested a weekend in June, I told him it was ok. And he is hounding me about the summer already. Sigh.
One solution is to change to an alternating weekend schedule rather than our current schedule (we split each weekend in half-- he takes friday night- Sat afternoon, I take sat afternoon - sunday afternoon ; he takes her for dinner Sunday evening and then puts her to bed hwre.
If we switch to alternate weekends, I will finally have sat nights free every other week... nut worry that a whole weekend with D doesn't give me enough recharge time? I'm nervous to start a new routine. Also, on my weekends I would have D from Tuesday - sunday night? That's a lot!
Eager for your thoughts and suggestions. How does every other weekend custody work for you??
