>>What irritated me more than her asking "why I want more custody"<<
I too found the premise of the question to be quite irritating and indicative of the societal problem assuming a father doesn't want to be with his children, hence my short answer earlier not wasting time justifying what should be obvious. I post again only to point out that by coming out from under her rock to hiss and encourage the stereotype Jaded once again exposes her agenda to the newer readers. Where was the helpful advice in her post? Take jaded's advice in other posts with a grain of salt, she's been beaten up quite a bit over her attitude, literally and figuratively.

As to the original question it should not need to be asked. More appropriate to ask would be why do some parents NOT want more time. Conversely IMO we "should take hats off" to the female CPs that step up and maintain personal hygiene and feed their children properly, why do they want more time with the kids? Do they have no choice since they drove away dad, or is it the C$? How many of them earn enough to support themselves and their children? Lots of valid general ?s here. Now specifically why does abby's X not spend time, it would be interesting to hear from him and her opinion as well. In my particular case the reasons are as I stated, but also include mitigating the damage being done to the kids by the narcisstic X. It had nothing to do with money, I offerred the same CS as sole custody, but she probably knew that was modifiable in the future. Control is big part of her issues. $ was also the issue for her. She wanted the CS I offerred, all the assets and $1K for life alimony (+ more) in return for agreeing to 50% parenting.

The fact is life is CHOOSING and trade offs.