3 Factors That Impact Parenting Time Calculations
To adjust the data in your parenting time report, the obvious option is to make changes to your custody schedules. (Of course, to deviate from a court-ordered schedule, you need permission from the other parent or a judge.)
But you can often shift your parenting time numbers without altering your schedules, just based on how you calculate. See three factors that impact parenting time calculations below.
Time versus overnights
There are two common measures of parenting time: total time and overnight visits. Some courts prefer one method.
Total time adds up the hours and minutes a parent has custody. Overnight visits are whenever a parent has custody past midnight.
The quick calculations above your digital and printed calendars can show either measurement. To choose one, visit your account settings.
Your calculation report can also include either measurement — or both. To choose, open your report and click the gear icon.
If one parent's visits with the child fall mostly during the day, the two measurements can get very different results.
Imagine you see your child for five hours each weekday, and the other parent has custody the remainder of the time. In a typical month, you'll receive about 15% of total parenting time, but 0% of overnight visits.
If your court doesn't specify which of the two calculation methods it prefers, look at both to see which more accurately reflects your parenting time.
Third-party time
There are likely times when your child isn't with either parent. Assigning these periods to "third party" when you enter them can more accurately reflect the quality time your child spends with each parent.
Parents most often use third-party time when their child is at school or day care. But you can use it whenever your child isn't with a parent: during summer camp, visits with grandparents, even sleeping hours each night.
If you calculate by total time:
Third-party time is excluded from your calculation, changing the timeshare percentages.
Say you have custody on weekdays, and your child is in day care from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you don't mark third-party time, your parenting timeshare is about 60%. If you mark third-party time, your timeshare is less than 50% most months.
If you calculate by overnights:
Third-party time generally doesn't change your totals.
Courts that count by overnights usually don't allow nights to be credited to a third party. So when a third-party visit goes overnight, Custody X Change counts it for the parent who had the child immediately prior.
Nonetheless, seeing third-party time on a calendar can help convince your co-parent that a schedule is fair, so it's often still worth marking third-party time.
Date ranges
Parenting time can change from month to month and year to year based on holidays, school calendars, when weekends fall and more.
At the top left of your parenting time report, adjust your date range to see how it affects your data.
Date ranges can have different results, so experiment. "Next 24 months" is particularly useful if you get a holiday or occasion every other year; it includes one year when you have the holiday and one when you don't.