Parenting time is the amount of time each parent spends with their children when

parents A parent is either the progenitor of a child or, in humans, it can refer to a caregiver or legal guardian, generally called an adoptive parent or step-parent. Parents who are progenitors are first-degree relatives and have 50% genetic meet. ...

separate. Disagreements about how to measure it and how to divide it often cause controversy between the parents.

United Kingdom

For child maintenance purposes, for example, the

Child Support Agency The Child Support Agency (CSA) was a delivery arm of the Department for Work and Pensions (Child Maintenance Group) in Great Britain and the former Department for Social Development (Northern Ireland), Department for Social Development in Nor ...

and their successor, the

Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission was a non-departmental public body established to take responsibility for the Child support, child maintenance system in Great Britain. The Commission’s primary objective was to maximise the nu ...

(CMEC) define parenting time in terms of the number of nights that the

children A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

stay with each

parent A parent is either the progenitor of a child or, in humans, it can refer to a caregiver or legal guardian, generally called an adoptive parent or step-parent. Parents who are progenitors are First-degree relative, first-degree relatives and have ...

. Thus the primary carer receives a reduced child maintenance calculation if the secondary carer has more than 52 nights/year contract with his

. This could be considered as unfair to those secondary carers who provide significant day-time care of the

but are unable to provide overnight accommodation owing to the unsuitability of their property.

Fathers' rights movement The fathers' rights movement is a social movement whose members are primarily interested in issues related to family law, including child custody and child support, that affect fathers and their children. Many of its members are fathers who de ...

argue that this indirectly discriminates against fathers, as they are more likely to have moved out of the former matrimonial home and less able to obtain

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

suitable for the children to stay. This is part of the winner takes all (benefits) situation and arguably not in the children's best interests.

References

External resources

*http://www.fnf.org.uk *http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/calculator.asp *http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/civil/guidance/eligibility_calculator.asp *http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts1991/ukpga_19910048_en_1 Child custody {{parenting-stub