For those with 50/50 parenting plans...

[hisliltulip]

DH has physical custody of YSS.  BM has wed overnights and eoweekend from Fri night until Monday morning.

In a couple of weeks, SS starts kindergarten, then the schedule changes...


BM is moved up to tues ON and wed ON, and every other weekend.  Which places the parenting time back up to 50/50.

Should she actually follow the court order and get SS to school on time so that she can keep the midweek overnights, here is my question...


What are your schedules like?  Every other week, or this jumping around every couple of days?  What works best for the kids?

I see pros and cons for each with our situation, but I wanted to see how others have handled it...

Thanks all!:-)

[junglechicken]

They've been on the same schedule, with only minor alterations, for 4 years now, so they're pretty used to it.  For them, at this time, I think a week on/week off schedule would be too much for them - too long with one parent at a shot, too long without the other.  Plus there are pretty significant discrepancies between the way we run our household and the way bm runs hers, so I think with longer stretches of time "away", the "deprogramming" might be more extensive.

When the kids are with dh, he brings them to school in the morning.

[Teddy]

I read this forum everyday, however this will be my first response.  My dh and ex have 50/50 with three children 9,8 and 7.  Monday through Thursday we have them from 6pm to 7am at our house.  Every Sunday my DH pick's the kids up at 5pm.  If it is our weekend we get them Friday 6pm to Monday at 7am.

I came on this site because of some of the things the Ex does, and from reading everyone's battles have come to realize we have it pretty good!  All three kids are in school full time so she gets them two hours in the am and two hours in the pm.  We do all of the homework at our house and provide a decent meal for dinner (not McDonalds!).   It may not seem like a 50/50, but we're happy with it when she is not up to something.

By the way, even with the 50/50 as mentioned above, we still pay 1K a month in CS.  Not a big deal in the scheme of things.

[maydaymayday]

New here too!

My husband wanted to do one week on and one week off but bm would not agree to that.  Instead we had 2 days here, 2 there, 3h, 3t, 1h, 1t, etc etc etc.  It was an awful schedule and depended on the whim of bm.  It was hard for the kids also not knowing where they would be.

I think the best plan is one week on and one off.  And the kids can be dropped off and picked up at school-cuts down on contact between dueling parents!

[Lawmoe]

I hope your schedule works for the children. After all, that is supposed to be the concern--what is in the children's best interests.  All too often when schedules are left up to courts, they are mired into standard schedules that are too often liike pounding round pegs into square holes.