So, my wife divorced me with everything all finished in July, but practically by around March this year when she moved out.

She attempted to 'take me to the cleaners' but it didn't quite work out the way she intended.

I kept the house, gave her some equity and I currently have my daughter 5/14 nights per weekend. I also have parental responsibility in the UK which means we both have full legal guardianship of my daughter, the ex wife is just the residing parent.

My daughter has stated she wants 50/50 access, which my ex wife went crazy about. We are only talking 1 extra night per week I imagine the ex wife went crazy as this would reduce child maintenance to £0.

During this time, the teachers have contacted me about my daughters progress, as the ex wife doesn't 'get' what we are trying to do with the maths for further knowledge.

My ex wife also got COVID and I just took my daughter for that fortnight period. All was fine and dandy. I have shown I can manage a household.

I may be moving jobs soon and If successful, my workplace will be a lot closer to my house and the school, more flexible working, less hours and more pay.

There's 2 motives here:

1) Most importantly, I want my daughter 50/50. I legitimately think this is in her best interests. I also think this sends the message that my ex wife is not first amongst equals, but we are actual with respect to paternity.

2) Secondly, this would reduce child maintenance payments to zero. It's true. But I would look to reinvest this money into things my daughter and I can do together, such as going on holiday and getting her into clubs. Yes, this will affect the ex wife's' income, but it's not my responsibility to subsidise her life style. She can work some more hours or something. I wouldn't be expecting her to pay me anything on my half of having her. I already pay for school uniforms, trips, childcare (we split this, but it's typically when she has her). If it gives her financial problems, well my daughter can just live with me full time then? I feel like an asshole writing this, but if we have a 50/50 split, that's how money works in my country. Why should I just keep writing cheques to my wife when I get a promotion so she can flitter it away. Yes, there is an inequality in our income, but she left because she wanted to be independent. But financially, she doesn't want to be independent.

Am I missing something here?