Skewrl - I can't speak for everyone but in many of my cases we have an arrangement where on week one when one parent doesn't have the kids, that parent has one or two viists (dinners out or whatever from after school until near bedtime). On week two when the noncustodial parent has the weekend, he or she would have on one dinner visit.

If I represent non-custodial dad, I also try for long weekends from Friday after school until a return to school Monday morning.

Hope this helps (I'm assuming a 50.50 plan wouldn't work from what you posted)

Lynne

I have a friend whose ex gets their kids right after school (4pm) and brings them home at 8pm one night weekly, plus every other weekend. His schedule is pretty flexible and he gets them more when he has time.

How flexible is your schedule? Could you do an overnight during the week?

My ex gets the kids every Thur after school and takes them to school Fri morning, as well as every other weekend. And it works great for us. On those night's he's responsible for the kids homework (well I believe in the kids themselves being responsible...).

In any case, since once a week he's responsible for getting them bathed and to bed, I find he's a much better parent, and he sees for himself the issues that come up. This makes co-parenting SOOO much easier. Many times when he brings something up, I'll have been thinking about it myself, and vice versa. We almost always agree on when the kids should loose stuff like their Nintendos. I hate to say it, but I doubt that we could have ever worked so well together when we were married. (Mostly because he just never seemed to understand what I was talking about when I said No to the kids.....)

And Lynne, how I would love that!!!! But my ex only wants that when he's taking the kids out of town. Oh well, they're almost past the ages where that matters a whole lot. My they do grow up fast!!!

My stbx has the kids every Monday after school until 7:30 and every Wednesday after school until 8:30. Then he gets them every other Saturday at 11:00 until Sunday at 8:00. He is not the type who wants his kids more :( He isn't willing to give up his Friday nights at all ever to have the kids. He is extremely inflexible with switching too. I wish he wanted the kids more.

I have joint physical custody, which means I get my son for a minimum of 2 weekday nights a week and on other weeks, I get him 3 weekday nights in a week. He stays overnight when he does that.

I like the arrangement I have with my ex and we mostly do ok with working out alternate arrangements.

Thanks all..

I'm still looking for work, but I'm assuming the normal 9-5, mon-fri deal. He's been going to my mothers' every Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon since he was 2, so I don't want to break that routine.
His mother works that Friday and Saturday morning, and is starting to work Mondays. I would probably have him Sunday night on my weekends no problem. He stays with my dad every other Monday, so I could drop him off with his mom on those Tuesday mornings before work or something.

ugh.. this is so confusing. For those of you that don't already know, I traveled for work for the past 2 1/2 years, 6 weeks on the road, with 10 day breaks home. I have a hard time now thinking of being away from him. I have a lot of lost time to make up for, and this crap ain't helping.

Are you on good terms with your ex? you two might be able to work something out like most of the people have posted already. If your not on good terms, then there really isn't much you can do outside of whats outlined in your custody order.

My ex works weekend/nights and i work mon-friday 8-5, so i have my kids every weekend and she has them all week.

If you guys talk then im sure you can come to some agreement that your both happy with, if your not on good turns then its alot harder to work something out.

We also have the every-other weekend arrangement. Also, every Monday and Thursday after school, the girl takes the bus to stbx's mother's house and he picks her up there after work (if he's working) for the evening, having her back around early in the evening. We're both pretty reasonable and flexible, and that really helps.

I hear you with being disconnected. Right now I've discussed with my attorney Friday to Monday morning. During the week obernights are going to be hard bc my girls are so young. I have no intention on living close to my stbx so whereever I live by the time I get out of work and get them back to my place it'll be bedtime for them. So what I plan on doing for now is one night a week meeting for dinner. Not sure how that will work me and a 3 yo and a 6 month old out!! I think and I guess I should talk about this with my attorney whengenet get older and stay up later I would like at least an overnight during week.