Minnesota Parenting Time Calculator (2026)
What Percentage of Parenting Time Is Your Schedule?
Pick a schedule, add summer and holidays, and see the overnights the way Minnesota counts them: nights under the order, averaged over two years.
The regular schedule
Every other weekend
Equal time (50/50)
Something else
Fine-tune the weekends
Tap a night to switch who has it
Summer vacation
With an equal schedule, summer usually stays on the same rotation, so this calculator leaves it alone.
Holidays
Overnights a year
What would change the number
Tap one to try it. Each shows the change in overnights a year.
See every night
Each square is the night of that date: where the child sleeps. Tap a day for details.
Where common schedules land
With your summer and holiday choices. The dashed line is Minnesota’s 25% minimum.
Common Minnesota parenting schedules by the numbers
Regular schedule only, before summer and holidays. Over a full year, 25 percent is about 92 overnights.
| Schedule | Nights in two weeks | Overnights a year | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every other weekend, Friday to Sunday | 2 of 14 | About 52 | 14% |
| Every other weekend, Friday to Monday | 3 of 14 | About 78 | 21% |
| Every other weekend plus an off-week overnight | 3 of 14 | About 78 | 21% |
| Every other weekend plus a weeknight every week | 4 of 14 | About 104 | 29% |
| Every other weekend, Thursday to Monday | 4 of 14 | About 104 | 29% |
| Friday to Monday plus a weeknight every week | 5 of 14 | About 130 | 36% |
| 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, 3-4-4-3, week on and week off | 7 of 14 | 182.5 | 50% |
Why every other weekend is not 25 percent
Friday and Saturday nights twice a month is only 2 of every 14 nights, about 14 percent. Two summer weeks and alternating holidays add roughly 15 nights, which still leaves the schedule under 20 percent. Friday to Monday with two summer weeks and holidays lands right on the 25 percent line, a few nights over or under depending on how the calendar falls. A weeknight overnight every week clears it, at about 31 to 32 percent.
That matters twice. Minnesota presumes each parent gets at least 25 percent of the parenting time (Minn. Stat. § 518.175, subd. 1(g)), and child support uses each parent’s overnights in its parenting expense adjustment (Minn. Stat. § 518A.36). Every overnight counts in that formula, and each one counts more as the time gets closer to equal.
How this calculator counts
- Overnights, not hours. Each night goes to the parent the child sleeps with. Daytime-only time is not counted.
- Two years, real calendars. It counts every night on the actual calendars for the next two years and averages them, because Minnesota averages parenting time over two years (Minn. Stat. § 518A.36, subd. 1).
- Holiday times it assumes: Easter is the Saturday night before; Memorial Day and Labor Day are Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights; the Fourth of July is the night of the 4th; Thanksgiving is Wednesday and Thursday nights; Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are one night each; a split winter break is December 22 to 26 and December 27 to 31; spring break is 9 nights starting the second Friday in March; Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are the Saturday night before.
- Summer weeks run 7 nights starting on the Friday of that parent’s weekend, in June and July. If the other parent also gets vacation weeks, the count can drop.
- Holidays come first, then summer weeks, then the regular schedule. Different times or dates in your order can move the count by a few nights. Your court order controls.
Negotiating a parenting time schedule? Jason Kohlmeyer and the family law attorneys at Kohlmeyer Hagen, Law Office Chtd. handle Minnesota custody and parenting time cases. Offices in Mankato and Rochester; video meetings anywhere in Minnesota.
Call 507-625-5000This calculator is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Minnesota courts have the final say on every parenting time order.