How to share a calendar with your co-parent without sharing everything
Two things fix this: share a separate calendar instead of your personal one, and pick the right permission level when you share it. Google Calendar supports both natively. Most people just never dig into the sharing settings enough to find them.
Step one: stop sharing your personal calendar
Your personal calendar has your dentist appointments, your work meetings, your plans with friends, all mixed in with the kids' schedule. Sharing that whole thing is an all-or-nothing decision you don't need to make. Instead, create a second calendar, something like "Kids" or "Family," and put the shared events there. In Google Calendar: the plus sign next to "Other calendars" in the left sidebar, then "Create new calendar." Move or recreate the kid-relevant events there, and share that calendar instead of your main one.
Step two: pick the right permission level
When you share a calendar in Google Calendar, you choose what the other person can see and do. From least to most access:
- See only free/busy (hide details): They see blocked time, not what it is.
- See event details: They see everything on that calendar: names, times, locations, descriptions.
- Make changes (see private events as free/busy): They can edit non-private events. Anything you've marked private shows only as busy time, with no details, even to someone who can edit the calendar.
- Make changes and see event details: Full edit access, and they can see who else the calendar is shared with.
- Make changes and manage sharing: Full control, including the ability to share it further.
For a shared custody calendar, Make changes (see private events as free/busy) is usually the right level: both of you can add and edit the kids' events, but anything either of you marks private stays private, even from someone who can otherwise edit the calendar.
Step three: use private events as a second layer
Any individual event, on any calendar, can be marked private. Do this for anything that shouldn't be visible even to someone with edit access to that calendar. Combined with a dedicated calendar and the right permission level, this covers the two situations that actually come up: keeping your personal life off the shared calendar entirely, and keeping specific sensitive events private even on the calendar you do share.
Where The Solution fits
The Solution reads whatever access you've already granted, read-only is fine, and merges calendars from both households into one view without asking anyone to change their sharing settings. It's built around exactly this setup: a dedicated shared calendar plus each parent's own, kept separate, viewed together.
Frequently asked
How do I share my calendar with my co-parent without sharing everything?
Share a separate calendar, not your personal one. Create a dedicated calendar for the kids' schedule, share only that, and leave your personal calendar unshared or shared at See only free/busy. Mark any personal event that ends up on the shared calendar as private for an extra layer.
What does See only free/busy mean on Google Calendar?
The other person can see when you're busy, as blocked time, but not the event name, location, or description. It's the most private sharing level Google Calendar offers.
Does marking an event private actually hide it from someone I've shared my calendar with?
Yes, for anyone with See event details access or below. A private event shows only as a busy block with no title or details. It does not hide it from someone with Make changes and manage sharing access, since that level sees everything.
Google Calendar's exact permission labels as of September 2026. Google updates this occasionally; if your settings screen looks different, the underlying idea (a spectrum from busy-only to full control) still applies.