5-2 Custody Schedule
A 5-2 custody schedule gives the child five nights a week with one parent, Sunday to Thursday, and two with the other, Friday and Saturday, every week. That is five nights to two, a 71.4% to 28.6% split, with two handovers a week. Pick the start date and who has the school nights to get your calendar, printable and as a calendar file.
Overnight split
The rule, night by night
Five nights, Sunday to Thursday, with one parent; Friday and Saturday nights with the other; every week. The rotation always starts on a Sunday.
Repeats every 7 nights · AAAAABB
- Handovers
- 4 every 14 nights
- Longest run at one home
- 5 with Parent A · 2 with Parent B
In the 365 nights from Sunday 4 October 2026: Parent A has 261 nights and Parent B has 104 nights.
Courts and parents decide what fits the child; this page only lays a pattern over the calendar.
5-2 Custody Schedule — Parent A and Parent B
From Sunday 4 October 2026 · In the first 365 nights, Parent A has 261 nights and Parent B has 104 nights.
- Parent A
- Parent B
- Handover
Four weeks from Sun 4 Oct
Twelve months
October 2026
November 2026
December 2026
January 2027
February 2027
March 2027
April 2027
May 2027
June 2027
July 2027
August 2027
September 2027
To keep a PDF, print and choose "Save as PDF" as the printer. The link carries your start date, first parent and names, so the other parent sees the same calendar.
Need the rest of the week on paper too — school, work, practice and the lifts? The Family Schedule Maker puts the whole household on one printable week and finds the clashes.
Your choices are saved in the link. There is no account.
How the calendars are worked out
Each template is a fixed sequence of nights, one letter per night, repeating from the start date you pick: 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, 3-4-4-3 and alternating weeks repeat every fourteen nights, every other weekend every fourteen, and 5-2 every seven. The sequences are printed on each page under the pattern's name. The letter says which home the child sleeps at that night, and a day on the calendar is coloured for that parent. Every other weekend always starts on a Friday and 5-2 on a Sunday, so the first weekend falls on Friday and Saturday nights; any other date you pick moves forward to the next Friday or Sunday, and the page says so.
The overnight split is the number of nights each parent has in one cycle divided by the length of the cycle, rounded to one decimal place. A handover is a night with one parent that follows a night with the other, counted round the cycle and scaled to fourteen nights so the six patterns compare on one footing. The longest stretch is the longest unbroken run of nights with one parent, which is also the longest the child spends away from the other home. The twelve-month figure counts the 365 nights from the start date one by one.
The four patterns the Family Schedule Maker also offers come from the same rule in the same code, so the two tools cannot draw one pattern two ways. The pattern names are the common names for these rotations; the page sets no expectations about which one suits a family. The calendar file writes each run of nights as an all-day event that repeats every cycle.
Every figure above was read out of the code that runs on this page. Where a number is our own judgement rather than a published one, the note says so and cites nothing. Method last checked 28 September 2026.
The weekly rhythm of a 5-2 schedule
5-2 is the only template here that repeats every week rather than every fortnight. Counted from a Sunday it is five letters A and two letters B: the school nights with one parent, Friday and Saturday with the other. Every week looks the same, which makes it easy to plan around, and each parent's role in the week is fixed — one has the school nights and the mornings before them, the other has every weekend.
It gives the weekend parent twice the nights of every other weekend, four in fourteen instead of two, with twice the handovers. The four 50/50 templates — 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, 3-4-4-3 and alternating weeks — share the weekdays and the weekends between both homes. All six templates are compared on one page.
For the rest of the week — who drives to practice on a school night, who is home on Thursday — the Family Schedule Maker puts the household's blocks on one printable week and finds the clashes, and the co-parenting calendar guide covers the swaps.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does a 5-2 custody schedule work?
What percentage is a 5-2 schedule?
What is the difference between 5-2 and every other weekend?
Is 5-2 the same as 5-2-2-5?
Why does the 5-2 rotation start on a Sunday?
Related Tools
Family Schedule Maker
Make a family calendar in minutes: everyone's week on one printable page, the clashes found for you, custody rotations as fixed patterns (2-2-3, alternating weeks, 2-2-5-5, 3-4-4-3), and a calendar file each person can add to their own calendar. Free, no account.
Printable Chore Chart
A free printable chore chart: names down the side, the week across, and a chore library of 62 jobs grouped by age. Rotates weekly, prints on one page, editable, no signup.
Babysitter Cost Calculator
Calculate your annual babysitter cost and compare it to nursery and daycare. Enter hours, rate, and frequency to see the true childcare spend.
Keep the swaps and the handovers on one live calendar with Homsy
A printed rotation is the regular pattern. In Homsy the calendar is shared, so a swapped weekend or a moved handover shows up for everyone in your household the moment someone changes it, next to the chores, meals and shopping.