Hello everyone, my ex-wife and I officially divorced over a year ago at this point and for that year I allowed my ex-wife to live at the home which I was awarded during our amicable divorce. It wasn't fun or easy and she didn't contribute financially to the household at all over the past year, but I just dealt with it and gave her over a year to get her stuff figured out and get situated. Well, now she's told me she got a job over 2.5 hours away in another state and still thinks we can do 50/50 custody and everything. She wants to either have our kid (8) attend school where I live and then do homeschooling or online schooling with her, or shes mentioned changing school districts down to where she lives meaning I would lose 50/50 or majority custody (a deal breaker for me, I've been very clear with her I would never, ever, accept anything less than 50%).

I don't think either of those options is ideal for our child who is in elementary school and I would rather her stay here during the school year since she has special educational needs and I worked long and hard with the school district last year to get her the extra assistance she needs to excel. As a guy, I'm worried about court biases (of course) but I was wondering if I would have a case to modify the custody arrangement?

As it currently stands I work remotely, make good money, have a car and my house (owned, not renting) and a large support network where I live. Not to mention my ex-wifes entire family lives within 30 mintues of me and I've always been willing and open about taking my daughter to any and every family event they have even if my ex-wife isn't there (not that I stay, but I'll drop my daughter off). While our custody arrangement states 50/50 it has never been 50/50 and last month alone my ex-wife saw her child only 5 days. But, I still pay child support to her because on paper it's 50/50.

Where my ex-wife is moving shes getting a school district job (not teaching, she doesn't have a degree), but she would get summers off. She's going to be living with her friend whose daughter is my daughters best friend (who also has two other children in that household). My ex-wife also still doesn't know how to drive and is horrible with money and finances (at our divorce her credit score was sub-600 and mine is ~800, for context).

Would most courts be OK with a sort of custody arrangement where I have my child during the school year and my ex-wife has her during the summers (less a week or two for me to take her on vacation), and every other weekend. We would alternate holidays every other year. I would love 50/50 to be the case, but her moving has put me in a situation where it might not be feasible.

My main concern is emotional manipulation by my ex-wife. Her and my daughter are close (we also have a very close relationship but she's always been the fun parent and I'm the one that makes her do homework and stuff). Her moving in with my daughters best friend makes my daughter think she'll have siblings now, but I'm concerned about stability and the educational well-being of my child. I've talked to a lawyer and he says based on everything I'm clearly the most stable choice for the child, but I can't help worrying about if push comes to shove.

I guess I just want to get some opinions on this situation, or maybe just vent a little bit.