Hi Sammy01,
My previous statement should of read 18 hours / 336 hour fortnight.
so in interim, when does overnight start?
I have them starting at 21 months of age, in my "growth in time" orders, start with one a week, leading upto 50/50 shared care by age 3 (so 7 nights then) these increment in 3 monthly stages from 18 months. The Family Report calls for no overnights until well after age 3. She's from the Jennifer McIntosh camp of no overnights for toddlers. I have submitted a section of the Richard Warshak report on overnights being beneficial to toddlers.
What arrangements for increased time as child grows?
As above, the mother said to keep it at 18 hours per fortnight for the next 12 months as per the family report. I seriously cant see how that is in the childs best interest. But anyway.
What do you think of mum's proposal? Surely at some point you want the kid with you Chrissy morning?
Her proposal is just cut and past exerts of the Family Report on not increasing time for 12 months. My hours for xmas are 3pm Christmas eve to 3pm Christmas day then 3pm Christmas day to 3pm boxing day odd/even years. After reviewing alot of Austii files this seems the norm.
So going straight to
trial? no reason not to I suppose?
All I can do is ask.
What do you think of the magistrate? I reckon sometimes they are funny creatures... They wanna delay things just to see.
I keep saying she is good and keep hearing good things about her, but seriously its starting wayne, she said at the last hearing that she would be following the Family Report closely as that is what she does. And was completely honest and said that we would be short listed as she hadn't read any of the material so thats how the case outline came about. It just seems everytime we get infront of her she only listens to the mother.
Mate there is no rush, your kid has a lifetime ahead of him/her... Maybe the magistrate is waiting a little while longer as it is harder for the other side to argue against overnights, once the child is 2 for example?
Point taken. After reading the case outline of the mother last night she is pushing the "domestic violence" barrow pretty hard through out all of her material, and saying that I carry out "domestic violence" at 90% of handovers, and I forcefully rip my daughter from her arms at every handover. It getting to the point where I need a "body cam" just to prove all this crap doesn't take place,as sad as that is. My question is if there is so much DV being perpetrated and she already has a Protection Order against me then why aren't I being breached or heading off to jail? Why coz its all made up crap that shes enters into a diary. My daughter is happy to see me at handovers and suffers no anxiety or separation issues and there is no tears. Im sick of fighting this bulls**t at each interim hearing, and its never tested. Lets just go to trial and get the final orders in place, an have her cross examined in the process.
Maybe I have an overly optimistic outlook...
Did you ask the
solicitor?
No I didn't unfortunately, I was more concerned with getting help on "submissions in relations to section 60cc factors" or whatever the hell that meant.
I ended up out of time and didn't submit a chronology, but I am happy with the Orders I am seeking. Even the solicitor commented on where they came from and I said alot of old Austii files, just to see how Judges write up final orders in the best interest of the Child.
Keep us informed, keen to see how this pans out.
Will do. I'll admit I'm not expecting any great things, I've learnt that these judges seem to be scared to do anything that isn't already being done, which is definitely not in the best interest of the child. One thing worries me and that is the ex is asking for handovers to take place in an Aldi carpark 12km from her house and 22km from mine. Yet on doing some research the 24 hour McDonalds is 15km from me and 18km from her. I haven't brought this up in my paperwork as I asked for handovers to stay the same as our daughter is able to get a snooze in on the 35-40 minute trip without being woken up halfway.
Cheers
