During divorce, separation, or even unmarried couples breaking up, sometimes the most difficult decision is “what schedule should the children have?”
Now this blog isn’t going to address what visitation schedule is “best” but rather hope to provide a few examples of schedules that the courts will often order, or that parents agree to.
Week on Week Off
This schedule is slowly becoming more and more popular as the courts are deferring to equal parenting time more often. This operates as the name implies, one parent has the children for one week, then on a date and time certain (generally around 7:00 p.m. on Sunday) the child goes to the other parents’ house.
Pros:
Allow each parent ample uninterrupted parenting time.
May be easier for the child to have a schedule that is continuous for one week.
Smooth drop offs and pickups.
Cons:
Extended time away from the child.
May make scheduling extracurricular activities difficult.
If one parent is poorly influencing the child the first few days of parenting time may involve “deprogramming.”
2-2-3
This schedule is generally ordered when the Cons of Week on Week Off outweigh the pros, primarily when neither parent wants to be away from the minor child for a full week. The schedule generally involves party A having every Monday and Tuesday, Party B having every Wednesday and Thursday, and then the parties rotating Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Illustrated below:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Mom | Mom | Dad | Dad | Dad | Dad | Dad |
| Mom | Mom | Dad | Dad | Mom | Mom | Mom |
Pros:
Ample weekday visitation for each parent.
Easier to schedule extracurricular activities.
Child has continuous influence from each parent.
Cons:
Schedule can be challenging for the child to remember.
Excessive exchanges between the parties may lead to more issues.
Rotating 2-2-3
This is similar to the 2-2-3 schedule above but is used when neither parent wants to be away from the child for five days continuously. This involves swapping each parents weekly days to ensure the three days over the weekend don’t bookend the same parents weekly visitation resulting in five days of parenting time in a row.
Illustrated below:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Mom | Mom | Dad | Dad | Mom | Mom | Mom |
| Dad | Dad | Mom | Mom | Dad | Dad | Dad |
The courts tend to be uneasy to order this schedule because not only does it involve a ton of back and forth (already a negative of the 2-2-3) but now the schedule is rendered more unstable. Generally, this schedule will only be ordered when the child is VERY young (less than three years old).
Every other weekend
This is the “classic” schedule that is often heard of and is falling out of prevalence today. This schedule is often entered if one parent is unable to adequately take care of the child during the school week, or the parents live too far apart to render weekday parenting time to both parents possible.
Illustrated below:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Mom | Mom | Mom (dinner with Dad) | Mom | Mom | Dad | Dad |
| Mom | Mom | Mom (dinner with Dad) | Mom | Mom | Mom | Mom |
More often than not the court’s have expanded the above schedule to let the “dad” (in the above example) pick up the child from school on Friday, drop the child off at school on Monday, or keep the child until Tuesday in the event school is non in session on Monday.
Pros:
Very consistent for the child.
Allows the custodial parent to schedule events for the child easily.
Cons:
Limited parenting time with both parents.
