Which custody schedule is best?

There is no single best one. Shorter stretches like 2-2-3 suit young children who find long gaps hard; alternating weeks suit older children and parents who live further apart. Your children's ages, school and distance matter most.

Is this legal advice?

No. It shows what patterns look like on a calendar. Formal arrangements, court orders and changes to them need advice from a family lawyer or mediator where you live.

Does the calendar export include holidays?

No. It exports the regular pattern for 26 weeks. Holidays and special days usually follow separate rules that you agree on top.

Custody schedule maker: 50/50, 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, 5-2 and more

Choose a pattern, a start date and who starts, and see the next eight weeks. Compare overnights, handovers and the longest time each parent goes without seeing the children, then export it to your calendar.

Pattern	Nights, Parent A	Nights, Parent B	Handovers	Longest apart
Alternating weeks (7-7)	7	7	2	7 nights
2-2-3	7	7	6	3 nights
2-2-5-5	7	7	4	5 nights
3-4-4-3	7	7	4	4 nights
Weekdays and weekends (5-2)	10	4	4	5 nights
Every other weekend	12	2	2	12 nights
Every other weekend plus a midweek night	10	4	6	6 nights

How the schedule maker works

Choose a pattern, the week it starts and which parent has the first night. The calendar shows the next eight weeks, one square per night, so you can see where weekends, school nights and handovers fall. Under it, every pattern is compared on the same three numbers: overnights per parent, handovers every two weeks, and the longest either parent goes without the children.

The export creates an .ics file covering 26 weeks. It opens in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and Outlook, and each stretch with one parent shows up as a single all-day event. Nothing you enter is sent to us.

The common patterns

Alternating weeks (7-7). A full week with each parent. One handover a week, usually on a Friday or a Monday at school.
2-2-3. Two nights, two nights, three nights, then the same the other way round. Young children never go more than three nights without either parent.
2-2-5-5. Each parent has the same two weeknights every week and alternate long weekends, so Monday football is always with the same parent.
3-4-4-3. Three nights with one parent and four with the other, swapping the next week. Equal time with fewer handovers than 2-2-3.
5-2. School nights with one parent, Friday and Saturday nights with the other.
Every other weekend, with or without a midweek night. The usual arrangement when parents live far apart. Adding a Wednesday overnight halves the longest gap.

Choosing between them

There is no best schedule, only one that fits your children and your lives. What tends to matter most:

Age. Very young children often cope better with shorter gaps. Teenagers usually want a say, and fewer moves.
Distance. Frequent handovers only work if the school run is easy from both homes.
Work. Shifts, travel and weekend work can make one pattern impossible and another easy.
How you get on. Every handover is a moment of contact. If handovers are tense, a pattern with fewer of them, done at school, may be kinder for everyone.

Holidays, birthdays and the school summer usually sit on top of the regular pattern and need their own agreement. If you are making a formal arrangement, a family mediator or lawyer where you live can help you turn it into something that holds. If there is a risk to your safety or your children's, speak to a domestic abuse service or legal adviser before agreeing any handover arrangement. Find A Helpline lists free, confidential services in your country.

If you are also dividing what you own, the who gets what divider helps with belongings.

Custody schedule maker for co-parents

Parent A

Parent B

All patterns compared