I’ll try and keep this as simple as possible in my explanation but my children are heavily attached to my now ex-wife. They connect with her and rely on her most between the two of us and I can’t say they really enjoy being around me as much as they do with her.

From until their ages of currently three and five I’ve been at work and she’s done all the mothering and parenting effectively.

What this means now is that I’m not looking so much at shared custody (for example having the children stay in my house for several days a fortnight) as the children won’t enjoy it due to their reliance on mum and frankly, I don’t see it being very viable until the kids are maybe a little older. perhaps when they are around the age of seven or eight they would be able to independently want to stay with me overnight.

This is not a reflection of what I want but more a reflection of what is realistically possible and what is realistically best for the children given their dependence on their mum and not their dad

My question is how can this affect custody rights early in the divorce? for example I might not want 30% custody now because of the above but in the future I absolutely would.

Is anybody in a similar position and can offer any insight?