My ex-husband is moving 3+ hours away. Any advice on how to make it work for the kids?

My ex (45m) and I (45f) divorced 7 years ago. It was an amicable divorce and we have been wonderful friends since then. We have three children, who are now 18, 14, and 11.When we divorced, I moved to the next town so the kids could go to the best school in the area. It's a 15 minute drive between my house & my ex's house. (My ex stayed in the house we bought 14 years ago.)We are very flexible in our shared custody - we don't really have a formal plan, but when we first divorced, he was working a lot of nights, so we decided that I would have the kids Tuesday night through Sunday night and the next week I have them Tuesday night through Saturday morning. (Basically, we alternate weekends.) We switch things around when needed (holidays, vacations, etc).He got remarried 2 years ago, but is about to get divorced and he has decided he wants a clean break from the entire area, so he's moving several states away - it will be a 3.5 hour drive between our houses.I tried to talk him out of it, because as much as I want to have my children with me as much as possible, of course they love their father dearly and I want him to be a major part of their lives. He feels he needs to be selfish (his words) and do what makes him happy at this point in his life. I want him to be happy too - and for our children to have a happy father - but I wish he would think about their needs a little more.But, I have no say in the matter, and he is going to be moving in about a month or two. This evening, he is letting our kids know about the divorce and his plans to move.I am trying to be positive and happy for him, but I feel like I am more realistic. After the divorce, I dated someone who lived 50 minutes away for almost 5 years, so I am used to a long drive on a regular basis and I know how that drive got really old after a year ... based on that experience, imagining driving 3.5 hours on a regular basis seems like a nightmare and I fear that neither of us will want to do it after a year or two (if that long).Any advice from co-parents who live far apart? My ex & I haven't talked about what our kid schedule will be after the move yet ... I really don't know what kind of schedule will work. Any and all advice is appreciated!TL;DR My ex is moving 3 hours away. We have kids 18, 14, 11. Any advice on how to make the shared custody bareable for such a long distance between houses? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2S13SSZ