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My situation, my two year old son lives an hour away and ex will not do drop offs/pick ups or drive half way. So any chance of seeing my two year old son in the week are out of the window. My question is has any father ever gone for weekend access every weekend and actually got it? I don't know what else I can do in my situation as she won't allow me facetime or Skype during the week, so have to go two week without speaking or seeing him, until my alternative weekend arrives... any fathers in similar scenarios? How did you deal with it?
If you have a court order in place, you can apply to vary it using a C100 but you must attempt mediation first. You could also raise the travel issue that way as well.
Could you not drive to see him in the week for an hour or so, or push more for facetime / skype contact?
It would be hard to get an order for every weekend, although not impossible with the distance between your homes. More often than not, the courts take a view that a child needs quality time with both parents and a bog standard arrangement is every other weekend.
If you don't have a court order, it's worth trying mediation to iron out any difficulties you might have.
Thanks for the reply, I've booked myself in to a mediation session just for myself to see really what I should be entitled to, plus it's cheaper than a solicitor at this stage! Based on experience from here, how realistic is for me to expect/and go for if it went to court, for her to drive half way or do alternate drop offs if my son lives an hour away?
The mediator won't be involved in telling either of you what you are entitled to, they will be there purely as a neutral third party to facilitate discussion and hopefully some agreement.
It might be worth completing the CAFCASS parenting plan to take with you, if you decide to give mediation a try it could work as a basis for negotiations. Here's a link
www.cafcass.gov.uk/grown-ups/parenting-plan.aspx
www.cafcass.gov.uk/media/190788/parenting_plan_final_web.pd
Courts do order that travelling to and from contact is shared, if it was her that moved away that may put you in a better situation to ask for it, but ask for it anyway and you might be lucky and get a judge that is progressive.
All the best
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