My son's dad and I have always had joint custody but for the first 5 years we were on a (flexible) half-week schedule, where 90% of the time I would have the kiddo 4 days/week, and my son's dad would have him for 3. Back before he started Kindergarten 2 years ago my son's dad approached me and asked for complete 50/50 custody split, where we each have him for alternating weeks. I really didn't want to, but since fair is fair, and I really didn't want to make a court case of it, I agreed to it.

I see my son every week his dad has him for one day after school until an hour before bedtime, so it's not like I'm going 2 weeks/month without seeing him AT ALL, but it still sucks. This summer we did half-weeks due to it being the most efficient way to organise our schedules, and I loved it! I got to spend time catching up on loving/raising my kid every week while still having a few days where I had free time! I begged my son's dad to reconsider our arrangement, but he wouldn't budge, claiming that switching mid-week while he was in school would be a disaster. But I really don't agree- how could it be that much more difficult than it already is? I'm hardly in the loop at all when it comes to his dad's weeks. If he goes on a field trip or has an assignment the week after I rarely hear about it (my son's dad is HIGHLY forgetful, to the point where I suspect he has ADHD or something). And the weeks I have my kid, I'm sooo burnt out cause I have to cram everything (I'm a WAHM) into his school hours and seeing as how I can't seem to be productive before about noon, it just isn't working for me. Week on, week off does the exact opposite of replenishing me so I can maximise my work hours AND parenting time.

Do you guys have any advice for this situation? The best I've been able to get my ex to agree to is 1/2 weeks during the summer but ideally it would be year-round. And I am flexible- we make schedule changes all the time without issue. I just want to have my kid every week! I feel like my ex is just being stubborn about this and it is really actually hurting all of us. I noticed my kid was much happier about the arrangement we had this summer. I really want to work this out on our own but I may have to threaten to take him to our mediator again... Something I really do not want to do.