Consent order or Parenting agreement

Hi,
STBX and I attended mediation to sort out child contact arrangement. After a lot of delay my styx has finally responded to my solicitor''s letter on finalising the child contact arrangement based on the ''statement of outcome'' given by the mediator.
Now, I am not sure about the way forward. Should I ask my solicitor to draw up a Parenting agreement or Consent Order? My solicitor has said that it will cost me money to get a consent order but I am inclined towards getting it signed and sealed because my ex is very unreliable and has a way of changing his tunes or being uncooperative just to be difficult. Would getting a consent order make it difficult in future to make any alterations if any? For ex: my ex currently has one evening with our child mid week ( Wednesday). If we wish to change it to say Thursday post the consent order, could we just agree between us on email or is it mandatory that we go back to court to alter it. Is there any way to get around it or make it easy to make slight alteration without having to go back to court? Would getting a consent order make my life difficult in anyway?
Any ideas or suggestions are very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If you have a court order then first you will need to make the appropriate application to court which the fee alone is £215, then there may be a series of hearings before obtaining a court order. Usually parents only make an application to court when there is no agreement regarding child arrangements and theya re unable to come to an agreement between themselves. Court orders are not flexible, they are rigid and have no provision for changing what is in the order except for making an application to vary.

You''ve done the hard bit of coming to an agreement regarding the arrangements for your child/ren so to make an application to court would be to waste all that mediation time (and money). Why not set out your agreement in a parenting agreement (Wikivorce has produced a unique free parenting agreement - email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for a copy). A Parenting Agreement will formalise the arrangements and both parenst are clear as to what the arrangements are and what is expected of them. It also allows for periodical revisions of the arrangements so that the arrangements can change as the children''s needs alter, or there is a change in family circumstances. It is far more flexible and fluid than a court order.

Thanks Rubytuesday for your response. My main worry is the fact that my ex is very unreliable. I am sure you have heard this before but my ex will try to be difficult just to make my life miserable. During mediation he agreed to certain things but later retracted it when the statement of agreement was sent to both of us. He initially agreed/wanted mid week contact every week but response to our solicitor says he wishes to see our child alternate mid week. He has also said that the mid week day to be fluid and to be decided as we go. He had earlier agreed to drop our child back at least an hour before bedtime, but is now saying that he wants me to pick up the child and drop. His agreement is very fluid and it would really help if it is formalised and legalised as soon as possible. I am more than willing to be flexible but I don''t want to give an impression that he can change the arrangement as and when he wants. My solicitor has said that the fees would be approximately 2 hours of her cost, court fees and another couple of hundred pounds (not sure what it was for). She can draw up a draft consent order and get it signed it signed by both myself and my ex and get it formalised by a judge. This sounds fairly uncomplicated but would give me the peace of mind that the arrangement cannot be altered as my stbx chooses.
Hope it all makes, where i am coming from.

With regard to parenting agreement. You could go to court and get everything signed, but at the end of the day, you cant make your eh parent your child. The courts cant make him have your child, if he doesn''t turn up, they wont do anything.

My ex is exactly the same and I'm facing the exact same challenge so I'm reading this with keen interest. My ex is very very fluid and likes to dictate terms as he sees fit. We were close to coming to an agreement through mediation but he has already started changing things (didn't turn up to see our child then claimed he would take next weekend as his weekend instead!). I am leaning toward the court order even though it's costly just for the piece of mind that boundaries are clear.