Week on, week off
Week on, week off means the child spends alternate whole weeks with each parent — roughly 182 overnight stays a year each. It's the simplest equal-time pattern, it has only one handover a fortnight, and it works well for school-age children when both parents live close to the school. It suits younger children considerably less well.
How it actually runs #
One handover a week, on a fixed day. The commonest choices:
Friday after school — the changeover coincides with the end of the school week, so each parent gets a weekend with their week. The downside is that one parent never does a Friday night going into a school morning, and weekends can start to feel like the whole relationship.
Monday morning at school — one parent drops off, the other collects on Friday. No handover meeting at all, which is the single biggest advantage available to a high-conflict pair, and reason enough to choose it.
Sunday evening — gives the incoming parent a settling night before school. Kind to the child, slightly harder on the adults.
Many families add a midweek contact call or a short visit, so neither parent goes seven days without contact. Fix the day and time; an open-ended "call whenever" turns into a grievance about frequency.
What it's good at #
One handover a fortnight. Fewer changeovers means less friction, less forgotten kit, and fewer occasions for an argument.
A real week, not visits. Each parent does homework, bedtimes, the dentist, the boring Tuesday. That's what actually sustains a relationship with a child, and alternate-weekend patterns starve one parent of it.
Children can state it. "I'm at Dad's this week." No mental arithmetic, no confusion on a Wednesday.
It settles. Both households get a rhythm — one week of family life, one week to work late, see friends, and catch up.
What breaks it #
Distance. Both homes need to be in a sensible run of the same school. Beyond half an hour it becomes a fortnight of long journeys for the child.
Young children. Under about four or five, seven days is a long time. Toddlers and preschoolers generally do better with shorter, more frequent contact, and a week away can be genuinely distressing.
Anything the child does mid-week. Football on Tuesdays only works if both parents commit to the Tuesday. Equal weeks mean equal responsibility for the club run, and that needs agreeing rather than assuming.
Kit. A week's worth of everything moves each Friday, or you duplicate. Duplicating the essentials — uniform, chargers, toothbrush, PE kit — costs less than the weekly argument and is the single best money a family in this pattern spends.
Two households that do things differently. Bedtimes, screens, homework. Children cope with different rules in different houses far better than adults fear, but wildly different rules on a weekly cycle is unsettling. Agree the few that matter and let the rest go.
The maintenance effect #
About 182 nights a year each puts a paying parent in the 175 or more band: a 50% reduction to the calculated maintenance, plus a further £7 a week. Where care is genuinely equal, the Child Maintenance Service may decide no maintenance is payable at all.
Worth knowing before you agree the pattern, and worth naming openly if it's part of what's driving the conversation. More on the bands →
Is it right for your family? #
Roughly, yes if: the child is at school, both homes are close by, handovers are reliable, and you can communicate about the practical stuff without it turning into something else.
Roughly, no if: the child is under four or five, one of you is a long way away, or one parent's work makes a full week of school runs impossible some weeks. A pattern that collapses every third week is worse than a smaller one that always holds.
If you're not sure, build towards it. Extended alternate weekends plus a midweek night for six months, then review. Arrangements that grow tend to last; arrangements that start at the maximum and get cut back tend to end in mediation.
How OurPath helps #
Set week on week off in your parenting plan and your calendar fills in for eighteen months, with school term dates already on it — so you can see immediately that this year's pattern hands one of you every INSET day. Handover days and times sit on each week. Swaps are requested, answered and recorded, which matters in a pattern where trading a single day changes a whole week.
Common questions #
What age is week on week off suitable from? There's no rule, but most UK mediators would be cautious below four or five and comfortable from around seven or eight, depending on the child. It's the child's ability to hold a relationship across a gap that matters, not a birthday.
Can we do it if we live an hour apart? You can, and some families do by moving the handover to Friday after school so there's only one long journey a week. But an hour each way for clubs, friends and parties will wear on the child. Consider a longer alternate-weekend pattern instead.
Does a week each mean no child maintenance? Not automatically. Where care is genuinely equal the CMS may decide nothing is payable, but it depends on the full calculation including income and who receives Child Benefit. Use the GOV.UK calculator and check with the CMS directly.
What about the school holidays? Most families run a different pattern in the holidays — longer blocks so each parent can actually take the children away. Agree it separately and write it down. Splitting school holidays →
General information about England and Wales. Not legal advice.