Seven ways to split a week.

If you are working out a schedule for the first time, the hard part is usually not choosing. It is not knowing what there is to choose from.

Most people arrive with two ideas: every other weekend, or half the time each. There are more than that, and the differences between them matter more than they look on paper.

None of this is legal advice and none of it is a recommendation for your family. What follows is what each pattern is actually like to live with, who tends to get on well with it, and who finds it hard.

One thing worth saying first. The pattern matters less than whether it is predictable and whether handoffs are calm. A schedule everyone can recite beats a clever one nobody can remember.

50/50, fewest handoffs Week on, week off Seven nights, then seven. The simplest even split.

50/50, frequent contact 2-2-3 Two, two, three nights. Nobody goes more than three days without seeing the kids.

50/50, fixed weekdays 2-2-5-5 Two nights each, then five each. Same weekdays every week.

50/50, consistent blocks 3-4-4-3 Three, four, four, three. Same weekdays every cycle.

not 50/50 Alternating weekends The most common schedule in the country. Every second weekend at the other home.

not 50/50, more contact Every other weekend, plus midweek Alternating weekends with a weekday visit added. Roughly 70/30.

build your own Custom Any repeating cycle. For shift work, rotating rotas, and schedules that never fit a template.

Schedules change. Something that worked when your kid was four often stops working at eleven, and again at fifteen. Revisiting it is not a sign anything went wrong.

Holidays usually sit on top of whatever pattern you pick rather than replacing it. Most families set those separately.

One calendar is free, which is enough to try any of these.