Free custody schedule calendar maker

Why a calendar beats counting

Parenting plans usually describe time as a pattern, like “2-2-3” or “alternating weeks”, not as dates. Working out who has the children on a Thursday in March means counting forward by hand, and a miscount shows up at the school gate. If you already know your pattern, what you need is the dates.

The common 50/50 rotations, compared

All four give each parent 7 of every 14 nights. They differ in how often the children change homes, how long they spend away from each parent, and whether the same weekdays stay with the same parent.

How the trade-offs work

• Fewer handovers mean longer stretches. Alternating weeks has one handover a week and seven-night stretches; 2-2-3 keeps every stretch to three nights but has three handovers a week.
• Fixed weekdays make routines easier. A weekly class or a work rota is simpler when the same parent always has that day; 3-4-4-3 fixes six weekdays, 2-2-5-5 four, and 2-2-3 none.
• Every handover is a trip between homes. The further apart the homes are, the more each one costs.

Courts publish their own model plans and advice by age. Arizona’s court help site, for example, lists fourteen example parenting plans with the advantages and disadvantages of each. Use the guidance where you live, and your lawyer or mediator, for the choice itself. This page only turns the choice into dates.

Not 50/50?

If one home holds the school week, see the every other weekend schedule, including the version with a midweek overnight that’s often called 60/40.

How to add it to your calendar

The file works with every major calendar app. Import it once and the rotation fills in for as long as you chose.

1. 1

   Find the rotation and start date in your parenting plan

   Check the plan for the pattern’s name or the days it lists for each parent, and the date the arrangement begins.

2. 2

   Set up the calendar

   Pick the schedule, enter both names so each block reads “Kids with …”, then choose the first day and who has the children that day.

3. 3

   Check the preview

   Flip to a month you already know and compare. If the days look shifted, the first day or the parent who has it is off.

4. 4

   Download the calendar file, or print it

   The .ics file holds one all-day event per block, each repeating every two weeks until the end date you picked. Add a handover time to get a short handover entry on each changeover day. For paper, Print or save as PDF puts each year on one page.

5. 5

   Import it

   iPhone or iPad: open the file and tap Add All. Mac: double-click it, or File → Import in Calendar. Google Calendar: on a computer, Settings → Import & export → Import, then pick the calendar. Outlook: Add calendar → Upload from file.

What a calendar file can’t do

• It’s a copy of your schedule, not the schedule. Your parenting plan or court order is what counts; where the two differ, the order wins.
• It contains the regular rotation only. Holidays, school breaks and birthdays usually replace the rotation for a few days, and every plan words them differently. Add those as separate events and delete the single days they replace.
• An imported file doesn’t sync. If each parent imports it, an agreed swap only changes the copy that gets edited. To keep one version you both see, create a shared calendar in iCloud or Google Calendar, import the file into it, and invite the other parent.
• Nothing you type is uploaded. The file is built in your browser and saved straight to your device; we only count which rotation was downloaded.

Never miss a handover

The calendar file shows whose day it is. Smart Calendars adds what a file can’t: an alarm before each handover that rings until you stop it, with three sounds and Snooze, on iPhone and iPad with iOS 26 or later. Describe the schedule in a sentence, the way you’d explain it to a friend, and ask for the alarms; the calendar maker above writes that sentence for your exact schedule.

Add the dates your plan treats differently, like holidays, school breaks and agreed swaps, by typing them the way you’d text them or by photographing that page of the plan. You check every event before it’s saved, and you can share the calendar with your co-parent by link, QR code or .ics file.

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Other rotations

• 2-2-3 custody schedule calendarTwo nights, two nights, three nights. Then the same again with the parents swapped.
• 2-2-5-5 custody schedule calendarAlso called 5-2-2-5. Same weekdays every week, alternating weekends.
• 3-4-4-3 custody schedule calendarThree nights and four, then four and three. Six of the seven weekdays never change hands.
• Alternating weeks custody schedule calendarWeek on, week off. One handover a week, always on the same day.
• Every other weekend custody schedule calendarOne home holds the school week; the other parent has alternate weekends.

Questions

How many overnights is 50/50 custody?

Seven of every fourteen nights, which comes to 182 or 183 nights a year. All four rotations in the comparison split nights exactly that way.

Which 50/50 schedule has the fewest handovers?

Alternating weeks, with one handover a week. 2-2-5-5 and 3-4-4-3 have two a week, and 2-2-3 has three.

Can my co-parent and I share the same calendar?

Yes. Create a shared calendar in iCloud or Google Calendar, import the file into it, and invite the other parent. Importing into two personal calendars instead gives you two copies that drift apart as soon as one of you edits a day.

Does the calendar include holidays?

No. Holiday and school-break arrangements differ in every parenting plan, so the file contains only the regular rotation. Add holidays as separate events and delete the rotation days they replace.

Is anything I type stored?

No. The calendar file is built in your browser and saved straight to your device. Names and dates aren’t sent to our servers; we only count which rotation was downloaded.