When setting up your appointment with your child custody attorney or mediator it’s best to think about all of your co-parenting or visitation options ahead of time to ensure minimal conflict and to move the process along faster. Below we have some examples of schedules that are already working great for parents. We hope this helps you and your ex to create a schedule that works for you and your children.
4 Child Visitation Schedules for Families
The “Alternate Weekend” Schedule
A great choice for parents who share joint custody is to split weekends. This is one of the most popular visitation schedules. This allows for the parents to split the amount of time they have with their children, and allows for weekend vacations and getaways that would otherwise not be possible. There are some considerations that can be made such as if the parents want to swap out their weekend for another weekend or if they are unable to be available for their weekend. They can choose to make it up, or to lose it completely.
The “Mid-Week Visits” Schedule
There are some families that will opt to allow the child to be with the other parent during the middle of the week. It is usually done on a Wednesday night and can be anywhere from one hour to several hours after school. This will then become the parent’s responsibility to make sure that when the child is there that their homework or other schoolwork is done before returning home to the other parent. This also makes it easier for the child to be able to see the parent without waiting the whole week to see the child.
The “Alternating Weeknight” Schedule
There are a good amount of families who will split weeknights with the other parent. It is possible to allow the other parent to take the child in the middle of the week and let them spend the night with that child and send the child to school the next morning. The majority of school systems will even allow for both addresses to be listed as pickup locations and drop off locations for the child. This allows for even parents to spend as much time as possible with their children without sacrificing work or other appointments.
The “Rotation” Schedule
It is possible to work out a rotation schedule where the child will spend 2 days with one parent and spend the next two days with the other parent and then a 3 day rotation with the next parent. It allows the time to be evenly split right down the middle, therefore, avoiding any conflict with either parent as to who has the child more. This is a popular choice amongst parents as it allows for a good amount of quality time with each.
These are just a few examples of visitation schedules that are working for other divorced parents. You can work with a child custody attorney or mediator and your ex to come up with the perfect schedule that suits everyone’s needs.