* [https://clicklaw.bc.ca/resource/4655 Legal Services Society's Family Law website's information page "Parenting & guardianship"]
** See "Guardianship, parenting time and parental responsibilities"
===Examples of Parenting Arrangements===
====Parallel parenting or silo parenting====
''Parallel parenting'' is a way of distributing parental responsibilities between guardians that is best suited for situations where each of the guardians may be a good parent and the children would do well with either of them, but the parents are unable to cooperate on parenting decisions. A helpful 2004 decision of the Provincial Court, ''[http://canlii.ca/t/1jptk J.R. v. S.H.C.]'', 2004 BCPC 0421, discusses the concept of parallel parenting at length:
*A guardian assumes complete responsibility for the children when they are with them.
*A guardian has no say over the actions of the other guardian when the children are in that guardian's care.
*There is no expectation of flexibility between the guardians.
*A guardian does not plan activities for the children when they are with the other guardian.
*Contact between the guardians is minimized and children are not asked to pass messages to the other guardian. When the guardians must communicate, they do so by writing in a book that the children take with them from one home to the other.
An example of parallel parenting being ordered is ''[http://canlii.ca/t/g8rp5 Sodhi v. Sodhi]'', 2014 BCSC 1622.
To further minimize disputes, guardians who are parallel parenting may be assigned specific parental responsibilities over which they will have sole authority. For example, one guardian might be responsible for educational and religious issues while the other is responsible for sports and music lessons.
Parallel parenting is not a term you will find in the ''Family Law Act'' or in the ''Divorce Act''.
====Birdnesting====
''Birdnesting'' refers to a parenting schedule where the children live full-time in the family home and their parents move in and out. This type of arrangement may be common when parents are separating and don't yet have separate residences.
When parents birdnest, the children remain in the same place and it's the parents who do the moving, normally while maintaining separate homes outside the family home.
The theory underlying this concept is that it is disruptive for children to switch homes every week and that it can be too costly to make sure there's a full set of clothing, toys, books, and whatnot in both houses. Birdnesting lets the kids stay in a single home, usually the family home that they've grown up in. Of course, the cost saved by avoiding duplication of the children's clothes and books is offset by the need to maintain two or possibly three homes: the family home, and a home for each of the parents.
Birdnesting is a term that has been created by lawyers and judges, like the term ''primary residence.'' Birdnesting is not a term you will find in the ''Family Law Act'' or the ''Divorce Act''.
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{{REVIEWED | reviewer = [[Mary Mouat|Mary Mouat, QC]] and [[Samantha Rapoport]], April 15, 2019}}