Post-separation patterns of children’s overnight stays with each parent: A detailed snapshot

Abstract

Despite widespread interest in patterns of parenting after separation over the past decade - especially in shared-time arrangements - few studies have explored the detail of post-separation parenting time schedules. This article: (a) provides a detailed snapshot of children's overnight stays with each parent among a national random sample of 408 separated parents registered with the Australian Child Support Agency (CSA); and (b) develops a typology of parenting time that emphasises the contiguity of overnights and the frequency of children's transitions between parents' homes. Parenting time schedules are examined across a range of residence levels from 1-8 overnight stays per fortnight with fathers. While many separated fathers see their children mainly on weekends, the immense diversity of modern parenting time schedules points to a greater sharing of parental responsibilities and richer range of parenting contexts post-separation than previously evident in Australia. The article encourages researchers, parents, practitioners and policymakers to adopt a multi-dimensional view of parenting time rather than focus on time simply as a number or percentage.