The 3-4-4-3 care schedule
A 3-4-4-3 rotation splits the fortnight into blocks of three and four days, with one handover midweek and one at the weekend. No block runs longer than four days, and the pattern repeats every two weeks.
| Week 1 | Week 2 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | ||
| Parent A | |||||||||||||||
| Parent B | |||||||||||||||
A fortnight of this rotation. The top row is one parent, the bottom row the other.
How the rotation works
One parent has a three-day block and the other four, then the lengths swap in week two. Anchoring the handovers to a Wednesday and a Saturday keeps both weekends and both halves of the school week shared, rather than handing every Friday to the same home.
Often works when
- Neither parent wants a gap longer than four days, but a change every two days feels too frequent.
- The child is roughly 6 or older and settled with blocks of two to four days.
- Both parents want a share of every weekend rather than alternating whole ones.
Worth watching
- The block lengths change between weeks, so it is harder to hold in your head than 2-2-5-5. A shared calendar does more work here.
- About 104 handovers a year, midway between 2-2-3 and week-on/week-off.
- Midweek handovers land on a school night. Whoever receives the child needs the evening routine ready rather than a late drive.
Questions about this pattern
What does 3-4-4-3 mean?
The numbers are the block lengths across a fortnight: three days with one parent, four with the other, then four and three. Each parent has seven days over the two weeks.
Where do the handovers fall in a 3-4-4-3 schedule?
Most families anchor them midweek and at the weekend — a Wednesday and a Saturday, for example. The anchoring matters: a rotation started on a Monday without adjustment hands every Friday to Sunday to the same parent.
Is 3-4-4-3 better than week-on/week-off?
It depends on the child’s age and the distance between the homes. 3-4-4-3 keeps the longest gap to four days, which suits younger school-age children, but it involves roughly twice as many handovers.