50/50 Schedules Mean Equal Time With Each Parent
Video Transcribed: 50/50 visitation schedules in Oklahoma for custody cases. I’m Tulsa family law attorney James Wirth, and that’s our topic. We’re talking about visitation schedules, and specifically, we’re talking about different options for 50/50 schedules, where you have equal time with each parent.
So, first off, there are no set rules on this. All right? There are things that are commonly done, but there’s no statute that says that these are the 50/50 schedules. It’s got to be one of these if you’re going to do 50/50. There’s no common law that says that.
It’s wide open for what is in the best interest of the children in your case, and that’s going to be based on the agreements of the parties, or if there’s no agreement, it’s going to be based on the order of the judge after a trial.
So, no set rules on it, but what are the common things that are done? The two most common 50/50 schedules are going to be a week on/week off and the 2-2-3 schedule.
Okay, so for the week on/week off schedule, that’s more for older children, maybe 10 and up, where it’s not so much of a hardship and difficulty for them to be away from either parent for an extended amount of time of up to a week. So, to do a 50/50 schedule for older kids, it’s a normal week on/week off.
That means they’re with Mom for a week, then they’re with Dad for a week, then they’re with Mom for a week, and then Dad for a week, back and forth like that. So generally, all you have to agree upon is it’s a 50/50 schedule, and then what’s going to be the day of the week that you’re going to do the transition, and what time is it going to be done. Typically that’s done on a weekend in the evening, but it’s whatever the parties could agree upon. So that’s the first common schedule.
Now for younger kids, they may not want to be away from any parent for up to a week. That’s too long for young children. Two, three years old, that’s a long time to be away from Mom or Dad. So for that, normally we have more frequent exchanges but to keep a 50/50 schedule, at that point the most common one’s going to be the 2-2-3 schedule. And that’s going to be where you’re with Mom for two days, you’re with Dad for two days, and then Mom gets the weekend. And then you’re with Dad for two days, then you’re with Mom for two days, and then Dad gets the weekend.
The effect is that you each have 50/50 time and you’re each getting every other weekend. So, you’re getting the good weekend time equally, and you’re also getting total time equally. And also, the young kids get to see both parents at least over a three-day period. They’re not away from either parent for more than three days.
That’s a common schedule. It’s a good schedule. You might modify that so that maybe one parent gets Monday and Tuesday each week and the other parent gets Wednesday and Thursday each week. But then that has the children away from one parent for a more extended amount of time.
The benefit of that modification is that it’s more set, so it’s easier to kind of keep track of because it’s always the same regarding Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. The detriment is you’re away from one parent for a more extended period of time that alternates. So, in order to avoid those things, you can stick with the regular 2-2-3 plan rather than the modified plan.
But for your circumstances, there may be something that makes more sense based on the parents’ work schedules or something else, so the plan needs to be very specific to you and your kids, but those are the two common 50/50 schedules.
If you want to talk about what may be best for your kids and your circumstances, you may want to meet privately with an Oklahoma family law attorney for a consult. If you want to get that scheduled with somebody at my office, you go to makelaweasy.com.
