How is caregiver decided

[dsrtrat]

How is the question about how much time is spent with each parent calculated? In our case, I will have the kids roughly 11 nights a month but will have them dropped off in the mornings before school due to our schedules 50% of the school days. There may also be days where they are with me all day but not spend the night.

What constitutes a "day" for calculating primary caregiver vs shared etc...

[thefunone]

My understanding - is 40% - break the year down to hours (8760)- and calculate your time from there....you need 3504 hrs....
Include time you may take them to sporting activities if they are involved in them (ie figure skating or hockey or soccer)....vacations...etc...(these are outside the regular schedule)
Every hour counts.

[Berner_Faith]

I was under the impression, the most common way to calculate is based on overnights... not hours...

[dsrtrat]

Thefunone. How does that work? Both kids are full time school. I would suggest that even if my stbx had them 60% of the days wouldn't have them that many hours as they are gone for 8 hours of the day. Who gets hourly credit when they are in school and spent the night before and morning at my place but then went to her place after school?

[thefunone]

Again - it was my understanding - if I'm wrong - I'm wrong....

Because I leave for work at 0530hrs - having the kids overnight is not feasible during days I'm working...indication from my lawyer was to keep track of those "extra hours" as well

[sahibjee]

My understanding - is 40% - break the year down to hours (8760)- and calculate your time from there....you need 3504 hrs....
Include time you may take them to sporting activities if they are involved in them (ie figure skating or hockey or soccer)....vacations...etc...(these are outside the regular schedule)
Every hour counts.

that would be very difficult to track, lets say you are right on the edge but were once one hour late for a pickup .. bam ...

over nights is more appropriate i believe.

[thefunone]

hmmmm....sucks to be me then.....

[OrleansLawyer]

Common sense is the best guideline.

Whether counting overnights, days, hours or total out-of-school hours is the best appraisal of your situation hinges on the facts. It is not uncommon for reasonable parents to negotiate based on what they consider to be fair.

[Mess]

Judges and the CRA prefer to count overnights. If you have substantial time with the kids during the days but not overnights, you could make a case for it. For example if you were caring for them during the weekdays and they stayed at the other parent's at night. Obviously you don't have them "zero." However if you want to make this case you shouldn't depend on being just a couple of hours over the threshold.

On the weekends the children are generally with a parent 24 hours a day, but during the week they are at school. So should weekends count double? No, in practice they don't.

When the child is in school in an intact marriage, do they stop having parents for 6 hours? No, they still have parents while at school, those parents are still their legal guardians. If a child is sick during the week, the parent is responsible for providing care. So the parent is responsible whether they are at home or at school.

Generally speaking, if a child is sick they will stay in the care of the parent they stay with the previous night; they would just stay home. So the reasonable argument is that care of the child lasts through the day until the other parent takes over for the evening (assuming a mid-week switchover.)

Really it shouldn't matter, but if someone is splitting hairs over who is responsible during working/school hours, then I would argue the parent who had them that morning. The switch happens in the evening when the child changes households.