If you are going through a divorce and you and your spouse have children together, an inevitable question will be: how often will I see my children? It is most common for one parent to have primary physical custody with the other parent having secondary physical custody and visitation. In discussing the custody and visitation arrangement with your spouse or divorce attorney, you will likely hear the term “standard visitation.”
“Standard visitation” is generally every other weekend with one overnight during the week in which the non-custodial parent does not have weekend visitation. Standard visitation includes an equal split of all holidays. Each parent generally has half of the holidays each year with the holidays rotating every other year. For example, one parent will have Thanksgiving with the children in even numbered years and the other parent will have Thanksgiving with the children in odd numbered years. In addition, with standard visitation, each parent generally has blocks of extended time(2-3 weeks) during the summer for vacations with the children.
Our divorce law firm likes to use “standard visitation” as a starting point for custody and visitation discussions as the “standard visitation” outlined above does not work for all families. Some families want different holidays addressed while work commitments may keep some parents from having overnights with the children during the week. Whatever your family’s situation, it is important to find a visitation schedule that works well for both parents as well as the children.