As a parent going through divorce, you may be advocating for a joint, 50-50 custody split. If you choose a joint physical custody parenting plan, it means that your child will spend half of the time living with you and the other half living with your spouse.
North Carolina parents have a lot of options available to them when creating a 50-50 custody plan. Depending on you and your spouse’s work schedules — and the best interests of your child — perhaps one of the following parenting schedules will be a good match for you and your family’s requirements.
Examples of 50-50 custody plans
There are virtually unlimited ways that parents can create a 50-50 custody plan. Here are some of the most common:
- Every-other-week: Here the child will simply live with the first parent one week, and the following week with the second parent.
- Every-other-two-weeks: This involves the child living with the first parent for two weeks, and the following two weeks with the second parent.
- 2-2-3: This involves the child staying with the first parent Monday/Tuesday, the second parent Wednesday/Thursday, and the first parent Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Then the schedule flips.
- 2-2-5-5: This is a good way to share the weekends while also allowing the child to have longer times with both parents, but not have to wait an entire seven days between contact.
- 3-4-4-3: Here is another way to provide longer periods of contact, share the weekends and also prevent the child from having to wait an entire week between seeing each parent.
- Every weekend: For parents with unique work schedules, this could be a good way for the parents to organize their parenting time.
- 4-3: Here the child stays with one parent four days and the other parent three days, and then it switches accordingly.
Analyze the needs of your family and get creative
As long as you and your ex-spouse can agree — and as long as the court approves that it’s in the best interest of your child — you can get very creative with your parenting plan. Indeed, most parents can find a solution to their children’s parenting needs regardless of their situations.