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→School holidays
Just like non-instructional school days, however, the problem isn't just dividing up the time the kids will be with each parent, it's also deciding how the kids will be cared for if one or both parents have to be at work. It's great to say that you should have the kids for half their spring break, but if you're going to be at work, how much fun will it be for them?
The summer holiday can be handled the same way as the winter break and the spring break, except we're talking about a much longer period of time. Parents also usually need to cooperate to make decisions about travel and vacations, the children's time with relatives, the children's participation in day camps and overnight camps, and the children's participation in sports during the summer holiday. While parents also need to figure out will the kids be cared for if one or both of them have to work, remember that there's no rule at all that summers have to be split equally. Other common reasons that summer holidays might not be divided equally include a parent's poor parenting skills or disengaged parenting style, a child who has trouble being away from a parent for extended periods of time, and a parent who has usually spends a minimal amount of time with the kids during the rest of the year.
If the children will be spending their time equally with each parent during the summer holiday, the easiest way to start planning the holiday is either: to agree that the ordinary week-to-week parenting schedule will run until the end of June and start again on the first of September, so that the time you'll be making special arrangements for are the months of July and August; or, to treat the summer holiday as a 10-week period, starting toward the end of June when school finishes and ending in early September when school starts. (That's the inconvenience that comes from having months that don't come in tidy four-week blocks.) The basic options for dividing the children's time are: