Seven nights at one home, seven at the other. The fewest handovers of any 50/50 schedule, and the longest gap away from each parent.
The children spend a full week in one home, then a full week in the other, changing over on the same day every week. It is also called week about, alternating weeks or 7-7. Over two weeks each parent has seven nights and one weekend.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | A | A | A | A | A | A | A |
| Week 2 | B | B | B | B | B | B | B |
A and B are the two homes. Shown with a Monday changeover; many families change on Friday or Sunday instead.
Older children, usually from the upper years of primary school, who manage a week comfortably and would rather not pack a bag every few days. It also suits parents who travel for work in blocks, and homes that are a little further apart, since the drive only happens once a week. It is the easiest schedule to remember and the hardest to argue about.
Two handovers a fortnight, so there is less to coordinate and less to forget. Each parent has whole weeks, with school mornings and the weekend, so neither is reduced to the fun parent or the homework parent. Children settle into one place for a stretch rather than living out of a bag. And the pattern is simple enough that a nine-year-old can tell you where they are on any date.
Seven nights is a long time away from a parent, and it is longest for the youngest children. Each parent sees the children on only every second weekend. A week is long enough for the other home to drift out of sight: a dose changed, a note from school, a friend fallen out with, none of it reaching the other parent until the next changeover. Both homes have to be fully set up for school weeks. And a missed changeover costs a whole week, not a day.
Friday after school is the most common, because the handover goes through school and each parent starts their week with a weekend. Sunday evening lets the weekend end at home and the school week begin settled, but puts the parents face to face. Monday morning keeps the weekend whole and uses school as the handover point, at the cost of starting the school week with a change. Pick one, write it down with the time and the place, and keep it the same every week.
The usual additions are a midweek dinner or an overnight with the parent who is off that week, a fixed call at bedtime, and a short message about the day that the child can read. The point is to shorten the seven days without adding handovers that undo the simplicity.
You set the rotation once and it runs: the calendar shows who has the children on any day, in both homes, with holidays and special dates laid over the top without touching the pattern. Each changeover has its own time and place, each way, so there is nothing to re-agree on a Thursday evening. The things that go missing over a week, a dose, a school note, a changed pick-up, live in one place both parents see, so the handover is not the first time the other home hears about them.
There is no best day, only trade-offs. Friday after school gives each parent a whole weekend at the start of their week, and the handover goes through school. Sunday evening lets the weekend end calmly at home before the school week. Monday morning through school avoids a face-to-face handover entirely.
Seven nights is a long time away from a parent at five. Many families use 2-2-5-5 or 3-4-4-3 at that age and move to alternating weeks later. If you do use it young, a midweek dinner or overnight shortens the gap.
The pattern usually keeps running through school holidays, with longer blocks for travel agreed on top. Some families switch to two weeks on, two weeks off over the summer.
Yes. Each parent has seven nights in fourteen, and the children spend every second weekend in each home.
Two in two weeks. That is the lowest of any shared schedule.
There is no perfect schedule, and this is a guide rather than a rule. What works depends on the children’s ages, the distance between the two homes and how each parent works, and it changes as they grow. General information, not legal advice.