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Making parenting arrangements

Every family is different and there are no standard or set arrangements for children. Examples of the arrangements parents make include:

  • The children spend alternate weekends, half the school holidays and possibly an evening meal or overnight stay on a weekday with one parent, and the rest of the time with the other.
  • The children spend roughly equal time with each parent. The children could spend one week with one parent and one week with the other, or have a four-day/three-day split week, or a rotation of any combination of days.
  • The children spend four or five nights in the first week with one parent and the rest with the other. This is reversed for the second week, and so on.
  • Short periods of seeing a parent often (more than weekly) for very young children.

The laws about child support are completely changing with the biggest change beginning on 1 July 2008. Your parenting arrangements may affect the amount of child support you receive. It is important that you get legal advice about how the changes affect you.

Some practical things to consider when making arrangements for your children:

  • the distance you live from each other and how this affects making arrangements work in terms of things like travel time and transport costs
  • family arrangements with relatives and other people who are important to the children
  • religious and other family commitments
  • existing arrangements and whether they are working
  • your work commitments and those of others involved in the children’s care
  • children’s sporting and social commitments
  • how, where and when to pick up and drop off the children
  • holidays, birthdays, Christmas and other special occasions
  • contact by telephone, email and letter
  • how you will sort out any disagreements about the arrangements later on and the process to be used to take into account changing needs of the children and yourselves
  • how parental responsibility is to be shared and, if there are more than two people sharing this, how you will communicate with each other
  • the age of your children and their developmental stage – very young children are thought to benefit by periods of contact that are shorter but more frequent.

More information

Living with parenting arrangements

Related publications

Child support and parentage testing

You and family law: a short guide