So, my ex (Davis, 34M) and I (29F) share a 4-year-old son. We split recently, and per our agreement, Davis gets visitation “in the county where the child lives, at dates we both agree on, that don’t interfere with the kid’s schedule.” Davis moved over 800 miles away right after the divorce, and now he’s talking about wanting long summer visits.

I just enrolled our son in a year-round daycare/preschool. It’s great for him—structured, social, and consistent. It also makes my life easier as a working parent. I didn’t technically enroll him to keep Davis away… but I’m not going to pretend I hate that it makes surprise visits and long stretches harder to coordinate.

Davis is now accusing me of parental alienation, saying I’m making decisions without including him and cutting him out of our son’s life. I honestly don’t think that’s fair. He’s the one who moved so far away with basically no warning, and when he was local, I was doing 95% of the parenting. That said, I didn’t exactly go out of my way to loop him in before enrolling our son, because… well, I don’t really want to deal with him. If a fixed daycare schedule keeps him from trying to insert himself more, I’m okay with that.

So yeah—I do think this setup is best for our son, but I’m also not gonna complain about not seeing Davis anytime soon. I'm still furious with him for how badly our breakup went, and the more time I can get away from him the better.