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My 10 yr old daughter no longer wants to do overnights at my house. I am paying max rate of child maintenance because of this. My ex still wants me to take her out for day visits every other Sat and Sun. Can she demand this or control my visits or can me and my daughter arrange these ourselves rather then my ex dictact my life?
Is there any child arrangement order from court, or was the contact just something worked out between you and your ex? If there's no order, then your wife can control contact, and you'd need to attempt mediation, and if no success in getting overnights, then court would be your last resort to get overnights reinstated. It's certainly worth looking at mediation as a first step to see if you can resolve anything.
Try www.nfm.org
No court order. We been split 6 years and had made arrangements between ourselves just for payments and overnights. I just don't like the thought that I now have to pay like someone who dosent see their kids and still let her control the days and times I can see my kid.
Hi There,
As said you would need to attempt mediation and then court in order to have some control over when you see your daughter.
Paying maintenance and seeing your child don't go hand in hand, and they are separate things you would need to pay whether you see your daughter or not.
GTTS
Stopping overnights could be the mothers way of increasing the amount of maintenance she receives, the only way to counter this would be to apply for a Child Arrangements Order to have overnights reinstated, which might be difficult if your daughter doesn't wish to do so, as she may be asked what her wishes and feelings are as part of the court process.
If you feel that your daughter is only refusing overnight contact because she thinks that's what her mother wants, it's worth getting an order in place.
Have you talked to your daughter about why she wants things to change?
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