Custody Schedule Maker

Choose a pattern, set the date it starts, and get a schedule you can actually read, with the overnight counts every court form asks for.

Build your custody schedule

Every standard pattern is here. Switch between them to see how the same year looks under each one.

Schedule pattern

50/50

Two nights with one parent, two with the other, then a three-night weekend that alternates. Neither parent goes more than three nights without the children.

January 2026

Parent A
Parent B

Tap any night to switch parents.

A custody schedule is the part of a parenting plan that says which parent the children are with on any given night. Everything else in the plan, holidays, exchanges, decision-making, is built around it.

Getting it right is mostly a matter of seeing it. A schedule described in a sentence sounds fine; the same schedule laid across three months tells you whether you'll really be driving across town on a Wednesday evening in February.

This tool renders any standard pattern on a real calendar and counts the overnights as you go. It's free and needs no account.

The decisions a custody schedule has to make

Four things, in this order. Everything else follows from them.

The pattern: how nights repeat, and over what cycle
The start date: which determines who has which weekday
Which parent begins the rotation
How holidays and school breaks override the pattern

Equal or majority time?

This is the first fork. An equal schedule gives each parent 182 or 183 overnights a year; a majority schedule gives one parent a clearly primary home.

Equal schedules need parents living close to each other and to the school, and a working level of communication. Majority schedules cope with distance, irregular work and higher conflict, and range from a near-even 57/43 down to a traditional 86/14 alternating-weekend arrangement.

Both are legitimate. What matters is that the schedule you write down is the one you can actually run for the next several years.

Why the start date changes the schedule

Most patterns only behave the way they're described when they start on a particular weekday. 5-2-2-5 gives each parent two fixed weekdays only if its five-night block begins on a Wednesday; start it on a Monday and the weekdays drift.

The tool snaps your start date to the right weekday for the pattern you've chosen and tells you which one it used. If you need a different arrangement, change the pattern rather than fighting the anchor.

Counting the overnights

A night belongs to whichever parent the child sleeps with. Daytime visits don't count, however long they are. That convention is deliberately crude, and it's what state child-support formulas and most court forms are built on.

The count shown here is for a full calendar year, including any holiday rotation you've switched on. That's the figure to take to your state's support calculator.

Common questions

What is a custody schedule?

The part of a parenting plan setting out which parent the children stay with on each night of the year, including how the regular rotation works and how holidays override it.

What is the most common custody schedule?

Among equal schedules, 2-2-3 for younger children and 2-2-5-5 for school-age children. Among majority-time schedules, alternating weekends, often extended through Sunday night or supplemented with a midweek overnight.

How do I write a custody schedule for court?

State the pattern, the date it starts, which parent has which nights, and the exact exchange times. Then set out the holiday rotation separately and note that it overrides the regular schedule. Vague wording like 'as agreed' gives you nothing to enforce.

Can a custody schedule be changed?

Yes, by agreement between the parents, or by applying to the court where you can't agree and circumstances have changed materially. Many plans build scheduled changes in from the start so a modification isn't needed.

Does the custody schedule affect child support?

In most states the overnight share is an input into the support formula. This tool gives you the exact annual overnight count for your schedule; take that number to your state's official calculator.

Document preparation only: not legal advice. Not affiliated with any court.