Co-parent Threatening To File For Sole Custody Because I Asked For Assistance In Paying For Childcare

I’ve been a stay at home mom for almost a year (upon insistence of my ex) and my son’s father and I split up a couple months ago. We (me and little one) moved back to my hometown, across the state to live with a family member while I sort things out. My son’s father still lives across the state and comes to visit our son every few weekends or so- and he does send me money for anything needed for our child when I ask him for it. Basically, I’m the primary (and only) caregiver. My ex has talked about maybe moving to the city we’re in, but he’s not sure if he’s willing to make the move as he has a pretty stable job as well as a lot of family in the city he’s in currently. (He also has family here…. but anyway)

The issue at hand here is that in order to go back to work, I need reliable and consistent childcare for our son. I have very little family support here as most of my family live in other states, and the family I do have in this town are usually too busy with their own schedules for me to just regularly rely on them to babysit. His family here has watched my son for me on occasion, but they too wouldn’t be able to watch my son regularly if I were to go back to work.

I brought this up to my ex, explained my side and why I need help paying for daycare for our son (and mentioned that if he were to move here this wouldn’t be an issue as we could work around each others schedules.) As soon as I was done speaking he absolutely BLEW UP and said that there’s no reason to put him in daycare, that he “will never pay for daycare when he can just get sole custody. And besides, I have loads of people where I’m at who could watch him for me while I’m at work” I tried explaining to him that having more social support for a child doesn’t mean he’s automatically a better fit, but he absolutely would not listen. He also cited that because I live with a relative and do not work, and he has his own residence and does have a job, that he’s obviously the more stable parent. (Meanwhile I’ve been unemployed for a year now, because he insisted on it, and he never had an issue with it before)

For the record, he’s never threatened filing for custody prior to this, and neither have I.

If this does go to court, will a judge view me as an unfit mother because I do not have a job, and can’t get a job unless I put my son in daycare? Am I considered the less stable option because I don’t have a big family support system?

Location: Georgia, USA