3 Weekends or More...

Clients love it. Clients hate it. And it all depends if it is in their favor or not. It's that fluke month, the holidays align with the weekends and one parent ends up with 3 or more weekends in a row. It typically looks something like this:

Non-custodial parent had the children the prior weekend, custodial parent's weekend is coming up. HOLD UP though, it's Labor Day Weekend! In even numbered years Labor Day Weekend is the non-custodial's holiday. Therefore, the non-custodial parent gets the weekend coming up, even though typically it would have been the custodial parent's weekend. The noncustodial parent enjoys the 3 day holiday weekend with the children. The custodial parent then believes they get the weekend after Labor Day since they haven't had the children in two weeks. However, that is not the case, as the regular scheduled parenting time goes back into effect. Making it is the non-custodial parent's weekend, again.

3 weekends in a row.

In 2019, many custodial parents ended up with all of January, to the dismay of the non-custodial parents, due to President's Day Weekend. However, many non-custodial parents are ending up with all of April, to the dismay of the custodial parents, due to Easter. And it seems some custodial mothers are having all of May because of Mother's Day and in odd years custodial parents have Memorial Day weekend. A lot of parents have been getting whole months this year, which is not the norm. I believe with Christmas being on a Tuesday in 2018 and with Easter being late in April, this created a mess of unusual consecutive weekends for parents.

We understand January did not feel fair and now April does not feel fair, however it is 100% fair. Those 3 or more consecutive weekends always come back around to the other parent either that year or the next.

Pursuant to the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines commentary, " A parent may receive three (3) consecutive weekends due to a holiday.  It is anticipated that missed weekends due to holidays will balance out for each parent given the alternating schedule for the holidays provided for in these guidelines."