
Quoting
weepingwillow
My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Iowa
My current child custody decree gives me two overnights a week from 5pm-8am and every other weekend Friday-Sunday afternoon (we were never married, btw). Six months ago I approached my ex about modifying the child custody visitation schedule to me having every Tuesday and Wednesday into Thursday morning and every other weekend Friday into Monday morning, making it officially 50/50 physical custody, this is with me maintaining the same level of child support as I was paying with the last schedule, me paying for half of my children's daycare (this was new), half of all school fees, lunches, and half of agreed upon sports (again, this was all new as well). She agreed, but by only saying we would try it temporarily. We have been doing this for six months now with no co-parenting problems. The last two months she has been using this as a leverage tool against me whenever I do not give her what she wants saying that she only agreed to temporary 50/50 physical and is threatening to take away (this is because I tell her I am not okay with switching days with her she requests- usually I'm flexible, but when I don't want to change days, she throws a fit). I really do think she is blowing smoke because she really cannot afford to take on the full expense of our children's daycare and school costs, and is using my children against me to keep while we do not have this "officially" in place. I have kept all my check receipts for daycare, school fee & lunches, and texts from her.
I personally would like to take this to court and get her to sign this finally to make it official so she'll stop holding this above my head and trying to hurt me. Do I have a standing chance to modify this if she does decide to battle me on it? I just feel it is incredibly cruel to our children and to me to bargain our time as she pleases. Also, not sure if would do anything, but she is unmarried (has a boyfriend of a couple of months) and I am married and my wife has a child on the way. The two children that I have with my ex are my ex's only children, while mine will have a half sibling in a few months. Will this bear any additional weight in court if it comes to a court battle? What other suggestions do you have? Thank you!