We are supposed to have 50/50 with the 5-5-2-2 schedule. We have Wed - Monday for Week 1 and Wed-Fri for Week 2 and so on. At least this way SD has some consistent days during the school week (we have her every Wednesday after school and every Thursday and Friday, and her mother has her every Monday - Wed after school). It was a great schedule while SD went to daycare. Never had to see Wingnut. Now SD is in kindergarten. We have the same issue. Wingnut finally got a J-O-B and we're supposed to fall all over ourselves accommodating HER schedule. Basically, we're her babysitter, which means we now get SD Tues after school until Sat at 8am, back on Sunday at 3pm until monday at 8am. This "new schedule" avoids having sd with a bunch of strange babysitters (frankly I think Wingnut couldn't find a sitter willing to spend 9 hours a day with the little demon) and to avoid the cost of sitters (even though we're still paying CS, Wingnut claims she can't afford a sitter. The crappy thing is that Wingnut thinks this is negotiable based on HER schedule. She wants every Saturday until Sunday at 3pm, which means we can NEVER go away on weekends because we can't take SD and we have to take her to Wingnut Sat AM and pick her up Sunday 3pm. Not going to happen when summer comes! AND if dh and I can't be here on one of HER nights, she thinks we should be responsible for a sitter. Again - NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. I think you should be as flexible as you can to show good faith, but not let it turn your lives upside down for her convenience.

"God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy" and you can't change crazy!!

HI, my 11SS has had so many schedule changes in his life I am suprised we are all still functioning... anyways, we had the crazy schedule you described above for almost 2 years and excatly what you described happened. Homework was lost, forgotten etc. Then the Bio parents kept fighting over whose fault it was and who didn't do what on their days etc which only turned into a bigger nightmare for 11SS. He was always confused about where he was going and who he was going to be with so he acted out ALOT!!!, THE BEST schedule for all of us has worked out great for the last 3 years... One week with us, One week with BM... split holidays accordingly, but from Friday after school pick up to the following friday BM pick up has gone over wonderful because there is not any confusion during the week and we NEVER have to see BM unless we want to. Also, as the child gets older etc sports and such are easier to plan and do too. This is just what works for us... hope it works out how you want it to. 50/50

that sucks when they put them in daycare like that when there are other options. i had to let it go though because the courts told us to. we wanted to keep him on her days after school because my dh works from home and i was home early to care for him, when bm didn't get home until 7pm but the courts said no, so she put him in afterschool care. he always got in trouble there.

Mon Tuesday, Fri Sat Sun, Wed Thurs, Mon Tues, Fri Sat Sun, Wed Thurs... so on and so forth.

It works for us, we each get two days during the week, then every other weekend (including friday as a weekend day).

The following week:

DISbelief~

~You have to BE crazy to UNDERSTAND crazy!~

At first, bf had them from 7a when he go off work until between 6-9p depending on when she got off work. When they were littler he basically really got no sleep before they were in school or like he did with my daughter now 5 make them sleep when he did. Then he found out about what his ex-wife was up to he put an end to that and went every other week Sun-Sun. Working 11p-7a at that time was hard for all of us-new relationship, scared kids and me with 2 tweens and a toddler; what a mixed up mess we were. After his became school age no one having to babysit them the next big milestone was my daughter entering preschool when she turned 4. I spent one year paying a friend of ours $50/week to watch her when he went in at 7a-3p (godsend shift change courtesy of ex-wife's new husband his supervisor). My job nearly took a hit the year before when he worked 3-11 and I had to leave my job an hour or even 2 hours before my shift to take over her care so he could go to work himself. Luckily my boss was more understanding of our "temporary" situation-we were waiting for him to move to 7a-3; rather than issue any threats they worked with me through that crisis. He faces a troublesome journey now though; since my kids and I moved out in April he has no real childcare (his "precious" family who said theyd stand by him if he sued moomoo for custody told him that if I moved they wouldn't be watching their grandkids) and has had his hours pickup from 5a-5p so that even when he does get them from wherever they land he has no real time to parent them-homework, dinner, baths, quality time, bed. I feel terrible for the kids but not enough to have them move in with us; that situation was spiraling out of control in the most basic of ways: disney dad vs taskmaster.

**I only have one shot at a truly great life and not one spent waiting for a man to notice me, want me, love me and be true to only me. 2010 is the year of "me"**

We have sole custody with Crazy Girl getting "reasonable visitation" at our discretion. It works very well for us as half the time she cannot even stick to the visits that she sets up, and we learned very quickly not to tell ss4 that he would be going to see his mother until dh and he were walking out the door.

"if you don't have anything nice to say, then shut the fuck up."

BM lives less than a mile away from us, in the same residential subdivision, in the same school district. We have every other weekend, and the weeks where she is not there on the weekend, she is there 2 days out of the school week. It's a pretty easy schedule to follow once you get used to it, and it helps that we all live so close.

My husband works at a warehouse less than 2 miles from home, and I commute to work downtown on the train. The train station is next to his job. My SD's daycare is down the street from my train station. BM's job is across the street from the daycare. LOL, we could literally walk everywhere, so flexibility is never an issue on our ends.

~*~I'm THE wife. Not wifey or wife material or #2. THE WIFE~*~

My DD had one week on, one week off, with my EX. I still think that is a lot of back and forth but she survived it. The poor kid learned to pack like a trooper. I think the split weeks is too confusing. "Where am I tonight?" the kid will be asking.