When parents share child custody with a 50-50 schedule, it is common for the schedule to be week-on, week-off – i.e., one week with one parent, the next week with the other parent, and so on. But not likely if a child custody professional is involved. Many parents agree to share custody by alternating weeks. But custody experts tend to disfavor that schedule, particularly for young children, and particularly during the school year.
Custody experts typically favor a schedule known as “5-2-2-5”. One parent has Mondays and Tuesdays overnight. The other parent has Wednesdays and Thursdays overnight. The parents alternate the Friday-Saturday-Sunday overnights each week. The numbers add up to fourteen, because it constitutes a two-week (fourteen-day) rotation.
With the 5-2-2-5 if you are the Wednesday-Thursday parent, you have Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday one week (that’s the first 5) and Wednesday-Thursday the other week (that’s the second 2). The other parent has Monday-Tuesday the first week (that’s the first 2) and Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Tuesday the second week (that’s the second 5).
Here is a visual:
Other posts and pages on our site that mention 5-2-2-5 schedules:
Okay so I see how this benefits the children however what happens when child support is involved and filing taxes (who claims the kids)
I do this plan we have two kids. I claim one child and he claims the other. once the oldest child is 18 we rotate claiming the second child every other year.
Are there any benefits to a 3,4,4,3 schedule over a 5,2,2,5? Two days seems like a very short stop before leaving again.
Susan
Yes. It would avoid the short, two-way window of parenting time that you mentioned. And for young children (or anxious parents) it would avoid the long, five-day span when the child and one of the parents are separated.
The reason 3-4-4-3 is not used commonly is because of weekends. 5-2-2-5 makes it so that the parents are alternating weekends. 3-4-4-3 breaks up the weekends, when most parents are able to enjoy extra quality parenting time. That may not be the case for a parent whose work schedule does not provide for Saturdays and Sundays off. But it is an unusual case in which BOTH parents have weekdays days off
Would you recommend this schedule for a 17 month old toddler with parents who live 86 miles apart one way?
Probably not. 86 miles is a long way to have such frequent parenting exchanges. And 17 months old is quite young for this kind of schedule. The only way it would be even possible is if both parents were fully committed to making it work.
If you have the 5-2-2-5 schedule and I am the Monday-Tuesday parent. If the parents are unable to work together and discuss a common ground on who picks up and drops off. On his weekend who is responsible for dropping the child off to either the Monday-Tuesday parent or to school that Monday? Or are they supposed to allow pick up that Sunday evening?
It really depends on what the court-ordered schedule specifies. I typically refer to the Monday-Tuesday parent as the parent who has Monday and Tuesday overnights, in which case Sunday overnights would be alternated with the weekend. So on his weekend, the child is at his home on Sunday night, and he is responsible for getting the child to school on Monday morning. Then your time begins at the end of the school day.
Does that give both parents equal rights to claiming the children at the year’s end?
How do you handle the Monday holidays?
Typically the parents take turns. For instance, Mom gets Memorial Day in even years, Dad in odd years, or vice versa; and the other holidays are handled similarly. Or, Mom always gets Memorial Day and Dad always gets Labor Day, and other holidays are “divided” similarly.
What if the holiday always falls on your scheduled weekend? Does the other parent take them 2 weekends in a row then he makes you taken them two weekends in a row? That doesn’t seem right but my ex is requesting that. I’ve had my kids the last 3 years for Monday holidays and it doesn’t seem fair.
I thought about this visitation schedule. My ex wife is wanting homeschooling and it will be around a 30min meet half way drive time to pick up our daughter. Is this visitation schedule a common 50/50 split? And with her homeschooling will it make this visitation easier since no typical schooling hours?
That would contemplate either that you were doing some of the educating duties during your parenting time, or that the home schooling were happening only around three days per week. The 50/50 split is most common in situations where the parents live closer together than you and your ex wife. That said, if you and she are in agreement about the drive times and the home school plan, the court would likely approve the agreement.
What happens when the holidays always fall on my ex husband’s parenting time
i.e. I get them on the day before Thanksgiving and give them back to my ex on the next day at 12 pm and the rest of the time is his weekend?
My it is his time for Thanksgiving i only get them for one day because again it falls on his weekend.
What about Halloween how should this be observed???
Thank you
Many parenting plans treat holiday time differently, and spell out how the holidays can be allocated between the two parents’ homes in a fair manner over the years. Oftentimes, the holiday schedule can be worked out outside of court without needing a formal hearing.
So, my son is 6 and my twin girls are 8! Splitting the week with school work is very very difficult they are very tired and confused and I honestly want to do what’s best and switching them to a 5225 so confusing I feel? As far as the courts eyes what do they consider stable for young kids!?
It varies so much, family to family or even child to child. So I wouldn’t try to nail down any general pattern with the courts as a whole.
Any change is stressful, and requires a period of adjustment, and it may be a while before it is clear whether to keep on with the change or to abandon the change and switch back.
How close do parents generally have to live to make this parenting plan work?
Generally this model of parenting plan involves both parents doing school-day pickups and drop-offs. So the reasonable limits of that kind of “commute” for the child in the morning before school, or in the afternoon after school, provides a guideline. That is not a hard line, because there are different reasonable limits for different situations. For instance, if the child is attending a rural school, the child may travel a number of miles from both homes to school. So the parents of a child attending a rural school may not live as close to each other as parents in the city who have a 5/2/2/5 schedule.
As with any commute situation, the longer the distance, the more difficult it is. So the longer the distance, the more important it probably will be that the parents are cooperative.
Right. My ex would never be able to pick up and drop off to their school this is not an option with our jobs and distance between homes. We do every other weekend unless we choose to communicate and meet to give more time to one another. Oy vey!
Yes, the 5-2-2-5 schedule really does require that both parents can do school pickups and dropoffs.
I have5/2/2/5custody with the right to Mother’s Day. This year it falls on his weekend, but I have to go away for a work convention and can’t be with the girls. Is it considered an ordered weekend, or do I just have the right to it if so I wish to take it,
You have the right to exercise the parenting time over Mother’s Day, and if you need to decline, then no problem. In most situations, that is all there is to it. Sometimes, however, the other parent will have planned in accord with NOT having children and it will complicate the issue because you are unable to take the weekend, but the other parent is also unable to take the weekend. The starting point would be to inform the other parent of the conflict you have with Mother’s Day, and hopefully it all works out.
How does this schedule work if the parents can’t communicate children are disabled? Adjustment disorders for instance.
Failure to communicate effectively might make this schedule unsustainable in the long run. Both parents owe a duty (to the children) to cooperate, and if they cannot, then 5/2/2/5 may not work out. So there are probably two answers to the question: in the short term, it works by having as many parenting exchanges at school or day care as possible, so that the parents are in person as little as possible. In the long term, it works by the parents improving their ability to communicate effectively.
How does this schedule of 2-2-5-5 work, if the parents live about 25-30 minutes away from each other and the school is 15 minutes from one parent yet 40-45 mins from the other?
Also, how would it work if one is a stay at home mother and the father has a very inconsistent work schedule? Ex: may work 8 hours one day but 12 hours the next ? Would the court really favor this schedule and find it appropriate for a 5 year to bounce around like that between mother and a daycare/grandparents/aunts house?
This schedule is less likely to work out if the parents are not in close proximity to each other, and even less likely to work out if one or both parents do not live near the child’s school.
In the event of a stay at home parent and a co-parent with an inconsistent work schedule, it is possible to provide for each parent to have 50% time, but for there to be flexibility with the schedule, based on the one parent’s work schedule.
It is also an option for the child to be with mom if dad is working during dad’s “on-duty” time, even though it means that the schedule is not strictly 50-50. The concept of 50-50 time should not be so prevalent as to keep the child “away” from one parent, and in the care of the other parent’s designee, to avoid one parent ending up with “more” time than the other.
In a 50/50 custody with a 2552 parenting schedule, where mother is a school teacher and does not work in June and July (is at her separate home) and father works 52 weeks per year, is it mandatory in Illinois that the mother must have the three year old child every weekday of June and July even during father’s parenting days while he is at work or can the child be with father’s designee on his parenting days (his retired teacher parents provide day care and TLC August to June on father’s parenting days and are available 52 weeks per year)?
I only practice in Minnesota, so I do not know the answer as it pertains to Illinois. In Minnesota, it would not be mandatory, but it likely would need to be addressed in detail to avoid a misunderstanding during those months of the year.