Would I (23m) Be Able To Get At Least 50/50 Custody Of My 16 Month Old Son If I Took My Ex (21f) To Court Considering I Am Very Active In My Son's Life? (ut)

Located in Utah.

I (23m) and my ex (21f) share joint legal custody with her getting the final say and she gets sole physical custody of our 16 month old son. She moved in with her family in Utah after we broke up. I signed a pretty shitty custody agreement while I was still living in my home state (2 states away), believing her threats that I would never meet our son and would never get custody. I just wanted my foot in the door and to be apart of his life in some way.

I moved over to Utah, slept in my car for a time to make it work, moved to the town over (1 hour drive away, 50-60 miles) thinking I would only get the bare minimum requirement for my visitation and for better job opportunity. Eventually, apparently while she was at school her family became overwhelmed with taking care of the baby and demanded my visitation days extend to 5 days a week. I had to quit one of my two jobs to make this work.

During the one day of the week she had off from school she chose to go out with friends or on dates instead of parenting. Even after she finished school, she's constantly going out partying not finding a job, doing as many other things as possible in my view to not to be with the baby. Even when she is home, she would lock herself in her room and ignore the babies cries for his mom. Her argument being is that my visitation time is my time alone to parent and her time off. In my eyes, this seems neglectful and would not be in the best interest of a 1 year old to have a inconsistent mother. Currently 4 visits a week for at least 5 hours usually longer. I also accommodate for her and her family with overnights prior to when i would awarded overnights according to our agreement (outlined by Utah Section 30-3-35.1). She doesn't have an income besides child support, whatever her family gives her, and some plasma donations, but it seems she can somehow afford top golf, cabin trips, a 1200 dollar pent house for her birthday? To me it seems, suspicious but again her time, her money, she can do what she wants but I feel as it is incredibly irresponsible. I try to be at all the pediatric or speech therapy appointments as well. I pay my child support on time and arrive to visitation timely to the best of my ability; some times I miss it by a little if I have a late shift the night before.

I am not sure if a court will put these into consideration. She also neglects the golden retriever we raised while we were together. No walks, obese, I believe to be depressed since she doesn't eat her food sometimes, leaves the dog poop in the backyard to pile up. I was thinking this could show an example of how irresponsible she is but I am very uneducated on all this. She also has not followed the No Disparagement Clause in our agreement and posted negatively about me on Tik Tok.

I do document everything I can and have some evidence of this behavior, which I'm not sure whether or not could be considered to be neglectful in court.

However, I am worried about the geographical considerations since I live an hour away from them. I still currently live with roommates, but I am looking to get my own place once my lease is up later this year.

She is shutting down any discussion of giving me any more custody despite my efforts. They have been making demands that I clean up the milk bottles she uses during her time. I do my best to respect her and her family's home and clean up after myself to the best of my ability. I'm not perfect, but I try. However, I think pressuring me to take on her responsibilities since she has more custody and refuses to even talk about awarding me some is completely unfair. It is not outlined anywhere in our agreement that I should be doing anything besides taking care of my child. Yesterday, they threatened that If I continue to be petty for only washing the bottles I use , I would no longer be able to use the baby's bottles for my visitation and other things like his toys or his clothes, etc, and that I would have to bring my own of these items. They even threatened to have my visitations no longer in their home and have it in my car or somewhere else. It's been 80-100 degree weather here recently. And considering the distance it would be a 4 hours of driving a day to make this work if I were to go back to my place.

Also, curious on what to do regarding toys. They don't want me taking the toys me and my family bought for him back to my place. I don't know if I would get reported for theft if I took them with me or if this is even an offense since those toys are his belongings and I am his father.

I know the court will align with whatever's the baby's best interest is, but I am not sure if I have a case or not. Trying to be objective as I can, my apologies if this is a little bias. My family believes this is a losing case and I would be wasting my money and time trying, but I would like some other opinions on this before I book with an attorney.

Thank you all so much for reading and any help you're able to provide.