after my wife petitioned me last august not much has happened since, mediation came and went without any change in her offer of 1 night a week
after 19 years of marriage and two boys age 10 and 14, I find myself on the edge of a huge life change. I have asked for basicly half of everything, including shared care arangement with me having 3 nights over and then 4 the following week (saturday night being the alternating so as not to disrupt school.
Anyway afyer mediation on my solicitors advice I applied to court for financial and residence orders (to move the process on)
I live in t he marital home, we are on good speaking terms and all is friendly, now her mind is positively made up its almost a perfect family home bar thing happening with all 4 members.
Anyway we have been informed we will have a CAFCASS telephone interview, I realise this is about me and my children and our future as father and children. What type of questions can I expect? do they dare i say try to trick you into answers? is it all genuinly gender impartial?
thanks in advance
Manta
I don''t think they try to trick you though they will want to know what is really happening and whether you have properly thought out arrangments after proper separation.
You need to stay child focused throughout. This is not about you as a father but about the children having a good relationship wiht both parents, which is not quite the same thing. You might also want to be flexible - for example with children this age alternate weeks might work better rather than moving in the middle of the week.
thanks for the feedback, alternate weeks while sounding better do make work arangements more difficult. I strongly believe that children are best in a family situation with two parents, it stands to reason that they should benefit from having continual and regular contact with both parents when the first choice is no longer an option. I must point out that i plan on setting up a home as close as possible to where we all currently live, not wanting to alter any arrangements already in place re schooling, friends, activities etc, say within half a mile to a mile
From my experience the only situation that 50/50 shared care arrangement work is when it week on week off.
Anything with more than one change over a week is difficult for a child to deal with.
The more changes in a week the more likely it will fail and the children will never feel settled in one place. Trying to duplicate their lives in two places doesnt work either.