Alternating Weeks Custody Schedule
An alternating weeks custody schedule, also called week on, week off, gives the child seven nights with one parent and then seven with the other. It is a 50/50 split with two handovers every fourteen nights, the fewest of any even pattern, and the longest stretch apart is one full week. Pick the start date and who goes first to get your calendar.
Overnight split
The rule, night by night
Seven nights with one parent, then seven with the other. The handover falls on the same day of the week every time: the day of the week you start on.
Repeats every 14 nights · AAAAAAABBBBBBB
- Handovers
- 2 every 14 nights
- Longest run at one home
- 7 nights
In the 365 nights from Monday 28 September 2026: Parent A has 183 nights and Parent B has 182 nights.
Courts and parents decide what fits the child; this page only lays a pattern over the calendar.
Alternating Weeks Custody Schedule — Parent A and Parent B
From Monday 28 September 2026 · In the first 365 nights, Parent A has 183 nights and Parent B has 182 nights.
- Parent A
- Parent B
- Handover
Four weeks from Mon 28 Sep
Twelve months
September 2026
October 2026
November 2026
December 2026
January 2027
February 2027
March 2027
April 2027
May 2027
June 2027
July 2027
August 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 rotation under everyone's week — school, work, practice and the lifts? The Family Schedule Maker draws this pattern as a band across the whole household.
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.
How the week-on, week-off rhythm falls on the calendar
Alternating weeks is the simplest rotation to write down — seven letters A and seven letters B — and the easiest to remember, because the handover is always on the same day of the week. The start date decides that day. A Friday start gives each parent a full weekend followed by the school week; a Monday start gives the handover to the school run; a Sunday evening start is the one families often describe as starting the week fresh.
The trade is the length of the stretch. Seven nights is the longest of the 50/50 templates here: 3-4-4-3 keeps it to four, 2-2-5-5 to five and 2-2-3 to three, each with more handovers. All six templates are compared side by side, and our guide to shared custody schedules covers how families weigh length against moves.
The same rotation can sit under the whole household's week in the Family Schedule Maker, where it shows which parent is on for each school run and practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does an alternating weeks custody schedule work?
Is week on, week off the same as alternating weeks?
How many handovers does alternating weeks have?
Which day should the handover be on?
Can I add alternating weeks to Google Calendar?
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.