Spousal Support Advice

Wanderer1983

tooldle said:

The other-side of the above being that in many circumstances, wrap around care can be better than being at home. When my daughter was in primary school the after school provision gave quite a lot of choice. Kids could sit quietly or watch age appropriate tv/films, play with the wide variety of toys (pool table etc), participate in sports (netball, cricket etc), participate in arts based activities (choir or dance) or participate in additional learning (languages). As a kid of a two parent family who was 'dragged' to activities specific to my siblings needs, I would have given my right arm to be able to participate in activities that challenged me. I'm sure all parents mean well but its not a given that parents abilities will match those of their offspring. Some kids need specialist support and others need to be stretched/challenged. As a professional female myself I always encourage and support women to reach their own potential. If I were the OP i would suggest working with the ex-wife to be to see what she really wants in terms of a career and looking to sort the childcare arrangements / maintenance to suit that objective, rather than assuming part time work to be the way forwards. This leads to a natural conversation on a time limited arrangement for maintenance. 
There was a thread on here some years back from a man whose wife was seeking maintenance, ad they had two older teenagers. I can't remember his name otherwise i would point you to his thread. The result in his case was a time limited maintenance award (3 yrs I think) which gave his wife some time to retrain. The ex-wife did take on part time employment fairly quickly.
I've just found the thread Separated, how much should I provide? — MoneySavingExpert Forum

I would say I'm a lot more flexible about what she wants to do whilst the children are around. Work full time or part time, whatever she wants we can make it work. I just don't want her to have any control over the choices I make about where to live and what to do as a job after the children are grown up.