Transcript
In terms of parenting time following a divorce, there’s a whole host of options that are available. It used to be that the custody label dictated exactly how the parenting time would be allocated. The most traditional arrangement involved sole physical custody with one parent and then the other parent having a reasonable amount of parenting time, typically every other weekend from Friday to Sunday, and one overnight per week.
As society has changed and as the law has evolved, it is becoming more common for the court to grant each parent a very liberal amount of parenting time. There’s a recognition that it’s important to maximize time with each parent.
So with the focus on parenting time, there are still very traditional arrangements where a child spends the predominant amount of time in the care of one parent, with the other having a perhaps every other weekend, and one or two evenings or overnights per week, with some extended time during the summer.
Each parent will receive a rotating holiday schedule and some extended time during the summer months for vacations and so forth. Still, other couples believe that it’s appropriate for chill… I’ll just start there.
Still other couples believe that it is important for children to spend equal time with parents and in those situations, we often see a week on week off arrangement where a child will spend one week with one parent, one week with the other.
For some, that’s too long to be away from a child. And so we’ll build in a what we call a six and one type schedule where you spend a week with one parent and a week with the other, but on say Wednesday or Thursday evening, you’d go back to the other parent to see them. So there’s not quite so long a time between visits.
The most common equal access schedule involves something called a two, two five, five split where a one parent will typically have every Monday and Tuesday and the other parent will have every Wednesday and Thursday, and then the child will rotate Friday, Saturday, Sunday, one week having that block of time with one parent and then the next week, that block of time with the other.
And so the way it all works out is that you’ve got two days with one parent, two days with the other, and then you add the three for the weekend, plus two more to get five. And then the same thing happens with the other parent.
So parenting time recommendations can be wide. There’s a lot of opportunity for the parties to craft something highly unique, highly tailored. So all of these options are on the table, but certainly you and your spouse have the opportunity to craft whatever type of a parenting time schedule that you feel meets the best interest of your children.