Free tool
Parenting time calculator
Work out how many nights a year your children spend in each home, and each parent’s share, from your regular pattern plus any holiday time on top.
How the calculator counts
It counts overnights: where the children sleep each night. That is how the UK’s Child Maintenance Service measures shared care, and how many US states count parenting time in their child support rules, so it’s the number people usually need. A day at the other parent’s house that ends with bedtime back home doesn’t add a night.
Most arrangements repeat every two weeks, so the calculator takes the number of nights with parent B in a normal fortnight and spreads it across a 365-night year. Holidays rarely follow the pattern, so you can add the extra nights parent B has in half terms or the summer, and take off any pattern nights they give up while parent A is away with the children.
Common patterns at a glance
These are the yearly totals for the regular pattern alone, before holidays.
| Pattern | Nights with parent B each fortnight | Nights a year | Share of the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every other weekend, Friday to Sunday | 2 | 52 | 14% |
| Every other weekend, Friday to Monday morning | 3 | 78 | 21% |
| Every other weekend, plus one midweek overnight in the week between | 3 | 78 | 21% |
| Every other weekend, plus a midweek overnight every week | 4 | 104 | 29% |
| 4-3: Friday to Sunday every week | 6 | 156 | 43% |
| 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, 3-4-4-3 or week on, week off | 7 | 182 or 183 | 50% |
A plain every other weekend comes to 52 nights a year, which is exactly where the Child Maintenance Service’s first shared-care band starts. One extra overnight a fortnight takes it to 78, and one a week takes it to 104, the start of the second band. The split looks small on a calendar, but a single midweek night changes which band you are in.
Why the number matters in the UK
When child maintenance is arranged through the Child Maintenance Service, the paying parent’s amount goes down as the number of nights the children stay with them goes up. GOV.UK’s guide to how shared care affects child maintenance sets out the bands:
- 52 to 103 nights a year: 14.29% less
- 104 to 155 nights: 28.57% less
- 156 to 174 nights: 42.86% less
- 175 nights or more: half, then a further £7 a week off
GOV.UK also says payments can’t go below £7 a week. Families who agree maintenance between themselves don’t have to use these figures, though many use them as a guide.
Why the number matters in the US
Each state sets its own child support guidelines, and many adjust support once a parent has a certain share of overnights. Florida is a clear example: section 61.30 of the Florida Statutes treats a parent who has at least 20% of the year’s overnights, 73 nights, as having a “substantial amount of time” and uses a different calculation. Every other weekend on its own (52 nights) falls short of that line, while every other weekend plus one midweek overnight a fortnight (78 nights) passes it. Check your own state’s guidelines, because the thresholds and formulas differ.
This calculator gives general information, not legal or financial advice. It doesn’t work out child maintenance or child support. For that, use the GOV.UK child maintenance calculator in the UK, or your state’s child support guidelines in the US.
Questions
Common questions
Who is parent A and who is parent B?
Parent A is whoever has the children for most of the regular pattern, or either of you if the time is equal. Parent B is the other parent. If you pay child maintenance, put yourself as parent B, so the UK and US notes describe your nights.
How do I count holidays?
Add up the nights parent B has outside the normal pattern in a typical year, such as a week in each half term or two weeks in the summer, and put that in the first holiday box. If parent A takes the children away during what would have been parent B’s weekends, put those nights in the second box.
Why doesn’t an equal pattern come to exactly half?
A year has 365 nights, so an equal pattern gives one parent 182 and the other 183, depending on where the year starts. A leap year adds a night.
Does a school day count as time with a parent?
Not here. The calculator counts nights only, because that is what the UK rules and many US state rules count. If your agreement or court order counts time differently, follow its wording.
Is anything I enter saved?
We don’t save them. The numbers sit in the page address so you can share or bookmark a result, which also means they can appear in our web host’s standard server logs, like any page address.
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