How spontaneous is the father of your child/children or your partner to his children? Does he go out of his way to see the kids? Does he want to spend extra time with them? Does he have a good bond with the kids?
If he had free time and he knew he could see the kids would he choose to?
Honestly I feel that my Fi sticks to the CO and that is it.
Re: Q re fathers
Ex follows the CO pretty strictly as far as the amount of time (less than 15%) but we are flexible with the schedule.
ETA: I have talked before about the lack of bond between Ex and DS...so I have to say that little effort has been made by ex and it shows.
DH will go see them whenever he can. If he gets asked to have them another night/wkend-he will always take it. He loves his kids and they seem to have a flexible set-up.
For the most part he sticks to the CO, but they are flexible with the schedule. If BM wants weekend time DH will switch days with her. Also, we take SS any extra time that BM offers.
DH is very bonded with SS. When they hashed out the parenting plan DH fought very hard for as much physical custody as possible. BM agreed in mediation and that is imo why we have SS so often rather than the standard EoW.
I would say that it's all pretty flexible. BM gets a bug up her hiney about something and either she pushes SS out the door, or she keeps him hidden-which usually only lasts two weeks or so.
I don't have CO with my children's dads, so they stick with EOW except when they have "big plans" that exclude the children, then I get extra days.
DH sticks with his CO.
My ex hasn't seen my kids in 3 years and has no plans on seeing them any time soon.
DH usually sticks to the CO but if there is something special going on he'll try to get the kids. BM won't always let him but he tries.
We live far (10 hours, used to be 12 so that's a step in the right direction!). DH used to work for an airline and used to fly up for school events. We do schedule visits outside of the CO because it's in our CO that if DH is in their area and gives BM 48 hours notice, she has to allow him to see them. She would anyway though, she's cool. We went up there for New Years and spent 4 days with them.
If he had free time and knew he could see the kids, he would DEFINITELY choose too. The last time the CO was redone, he managed to get the judge to push the drop off time from 4pm to 6pm so he could have more time with them. He's taking unpaid leave from work during spring break. He's not as good when they aren't physically around us, he says he calls and they get bored talking to him (they're 7 and 8) and it hurts his feelings cause they'd rather play. But when it's in person, they're like three peas in a pod!
When SD was younger and living with BM and we lived out of state, we would drive down from Boston to Philly every 3 weeks to see SD but whenever we did it more often which was most of the time, we would always get SD, never once went to NJ without getting her even though it added an extra 2 hours to the drive.
And obviously I am married to my kids father but the kids really are bonded to us equally because DH is so involved with them, my friends are always saying how their kids never cry for their father like mine do, lol.
We take every chance we get for extra time! BM is sorta BSC, so she offers extra time for a couple of weeks and then changes her mind and sticks to CO again. It KILLS us when she does that, but it's all a game to her. They can usually be flexible with the CO when they need to switch weekends though. BM was unusually accomodating for our wedding, and we will be the same for hers.
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DH picks the kids up from school Friday, they're with us all weekend and I send them off to school on Monday. He picks them up Wednesday night and I send them to school on Thursday. BM still asks us to watch them so she can go out on her nights and DH always says yes, even if we have plans. He is not as close to his older two (they're not biologically his, so maybe that makes a difference), but the youngest (5) is attached at the hip to him.