Dragon's Lair....Insert idiotic line here

(names have been changed to protect the guilty) 

In the matter of the CTC (Child Tax Credit).

I have reviewed the documents that Ms. XXXXX  had sent over and I am not surprised by the repercussions of Christina’s actions from Revenue Canada.  During the Custody trial in October Christina said on the stand that she had taken care of the CTC and that everything was fixed.  What she had done was falsely filed a claim and it came back to haunt her.  I am not sure what she did but in December I had contacted Revenue Canada to correctly set up a schedule for the CTC.  I had faxed the complete judgment to Revenue Canada and they proceeded with their own investigation and decision.  They deemed that the children lived in both homes and that the CTC would be split every 6 months automatically.  Now Christina had received this information and she was told that because she had falsely filed the claim she would be required to repay what she had received.  Christina contacted me in January demanding that I sign the CTC over to her to get her out of her predicament.  I refused on the basis that they had made their decision and I was not going to change it now.  I advised Christina at that time to deal with it as she saw fit and that I was not bailing her out and that I was done with her problems.

In the matter of the children’s extra curricular activities.

The judgment states that one parent is entrusted with the duties of the education, extra curricular activities etc.  That judgment entrusted myself to those responsibilities and that I am to communicate to Christina in a method of my choosing.  I have requested so many times that Christina provide me with an email address so that I can have her informed on to what I am planning and to get her opinions.  I tried so many times to do that to keep the hostilities down to a minimum.  Christina has forced me to use the telephone and subject me to her antagonistic approach to solving matters and that is why I give as much information in as little time as possible.  If Christina has concerns I wish she would address them to me in an email and show some maturity in dealing with these issues rather then blame everyone else for her mistakes in life.

I have made the decisions that I believe are the correct one.  I have enrolled Brayden in 2 consecutive speech programs that I was able to get him in.  I have Curtis in Church and Soccer and he has just left on a week long Church Camp that I believe is a wonderful experience for him.  I regret that it had to happen on the week that Christina was to have him but I can not control that.  I informed her as soon as I knew the dates and the program schedule.  I would like to discuss other things through email correspondence but I have never been provided an email address to facilitate these discussions.  So naturally Christina will feel that she is being left out of decisions.  When I do try and talk to her she is very aggressive, so I do not attempt as the final decision is mine to make.  During all of these attempts to communicate Christina has never once paid for half of any function or item that the children needed.  Although I will say that her boyfriend had given 10 dollars towards Curtis’s soccer windup after I had asked Christina to pay it.  Christina responded “go ahead, pay it I am not” her boyfriend looked at her and informed me that he would pay in the following week and he did.  This is not something I am making a big deal of.  These are my children and if they need something it will be provided to them.

The latest incident was the church camp.  I informed Christina as soon as I could and then she called me after I had dropped off Brayden as I said I would.  She started yelling at me as to where Curtis was and I informed her politely that he was going to camp and that it was be a very good educational experience for him.  Christina told me that Curtis had told her that he did not want to go to camp and that I was forcing him.  She informed me that I failed to have him in her care and that she was charging me with kidnapping and that the police are being informed.  I politely told her that I made a decision and if she needed more information to please provide me with an email address as I was not going to get into an argument with her over the choices that a Judge entrusted me with making.    I told her that I would be calling Brayden every couple of days to talk to him and she said that if I was keeping her from Curtis then “Brayden would be unavailable to talk to you”.  I told her that is her choice and it only showed the maturity of her and that is the reason why she was unable to make decisions for the children.  I ended the conversation at that point.

Conclusion

At this point I must say that all of these issues could have been avoided had Ms. XXXXXX and Christina agreed to the after trial meeting that I had requested to iron out the details.  Since there was nothing I proceeded to do things as best as I could alone and with trying to get as much cooperation from Christina as I can.  I am sure Christina feels differently but in the end my choices are for the best interests of the children and not her.

Proposed Change to Children’s schedule

On may 1 I was offered employment with a new company that could drastically increase the amount of time that I have with the children.  I am now the transportation and logistics coordinator and plant operator for xxxxxxxxx.  This is a company that manufactures and ships xxxx to the oil and gas sector.  This position has a significant increase in the amount of responsibility that is required of me as well as the amount of time on my shift.  I am required to be on call for 24 hours the duration of my shift which lasts 5 days.  After this shift I am released from duties for x days.  My rotation works on a x days on x off x on x off X on X off schedule.  That is a X day shift that repeats itself again.

I attempted to explain to Christina what I was requesting and she said provide her with a print out and that she would look at it.  With the way the logbook travels back and forth it was a 2 week period after I spoke with her that she saw it.  I had done the calendar incorrectly and as soon as I new about it I called her to tell her to ignore that one.  Two weeks after that is when I was able to give her the revised copy in her logbook and she immediately refused it saying she was never going to accept anything I said and that she was not a babysitter for me.  I explained that with her on maternity leave until December and her not working this was a very workable plan.  I would gladly respect any plans that she had already made with respect to the kids and that I believed that it was in the best interests of the children that they spend as much time with me, as well as her and not at daycare, as I was now only working ½ the month but still getting full time hours due to my shift demands.   I believe that this would work out great for the children during the summer months and possibly longer if we can agree to work for the children and not petty interest.  I believe I am asking for a lot from Christina, but not the impossible.