He is wanting 50/50 shared care for the girls. Is this because he wouldn’t need to pay child maintenance?

Hi I’ve recently separated from my husband of 5 years, will are still currently in the same house. I have my own business and changed to work part time when we had our children. He works full time as a high school teacher out at 7:30-5 every day, I am on a very small income which covers all our food / clothes / petrol etc and he covers bills / mortgage. He is wanting 50/50 shared care for the girls 6 and 4 yrs and has now started to take the girls to school and do pick ups twice a week I think this is so “he said” to get used to him being around more, which I said is fine, but I’m now thinking his wanting joint custody is this because he wouldn’t need to pay child maintenance? As I can work around our children’s school hours and he can’t he is wanting them to go into school clubs 7:30-5:30 3 days a week and my argument with this is that it isn’t in the best interests of our girls when their mum can be with them? Would just love some opinions on this and whether anyone here thinks it’s all money driven?

Hi Bradie, this sounds like a difficult situation. I would always advocate speaking to a counsellor or family lawyer. Some sort of independent mediation would be really useful for you as it sounds like you both need to start having conversations about his motivations in spending time with the girls. It could be financial or it could be emotional (or both!). Regardless of the 50/50 shared care, he is likely to still be required to provide support via child maintenance or spousal maintenance.
My advice would be to speak initially with a family lawyer to give you specific advice and knowledge around your rights and how to progress things in your best interests.