What are your favorite child custody schedule? Alternating weeks, 2–2–3, 3–3–4–4, or something else?
Without regard to any other considerations that would affect a custody schedule, my favorite schedule generally is neither the 2-2-3-3 or 3-3-4-4.
I like the 2-2-3 schedule, and I’ll explain why below.
2-2-5-5 and 3-4-4-3 look like this:
(thanks to custodyxchange.com for these graphics; I urge you to visit their website for more detailed descriptions of possible custody schedules)
The 2-2-3 schedule looks like this:
The reason I like this schedule is because it strikes me as the best balance between ensuring regular and frequent contact with the children and parents and gives the parents and kids a mix of frequent contact and a long string of days together. This schedule appears to make both children and parents the happiest of the possible schedules. This schedule works best when the parents and children live within walking distance of each other. It’s appeal and effectiveness decreases the father apart the parents live from one another.
But remember that the best schedule is not the one that the lawyers or the “experts” deem best. Where parents live a little too far apart to make 2-2-3 work, some families like having the children with each parent in one-week chunks. Families like these would find the back and forth (and the associated pick-ups or drop-offs) required by a 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5 or 3-4-4-3 schedule to be more of a hindrance than a help.
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277