Practice Area · Schedules
Parenting time, engineered for real life.
A parenting schedule is a piece of drafting your family will live inside for years. Vague orders create annual litigation; precise ones prevent it. The goal is a schedule built around the child's actual life — not symmetry between the parents.
The Schedule Follows the Child
Stability is measured from the child's seat.
School calendars, activities, friendships, sleep — the things that make a schedule work are the child's, not the parents'. Alternating weeks, 5-2-2-5 rotations, school-year/summer splits: the named structures are starting points, and the right one depends on ages, distance between homes, and how the family actually functions. Equal time that exhausts a child isn't stability; it's arithmetic.
Complex Calendars
Travel, multiple homes, and the details that prevent friction.
The families I represent rarely have simple logistics: travel-heavy careers, a second home in the mountains, private-school calendars that don't match the district's, holidays with real traditions on both sides. Good orders anticipate all of it — exchange logistics, travel notice, passports, make-up time — and include the clauses that prevent years of low-grade conflict, like a well-drafted right of first refusal (whether a parent must offer the other parent the time before a sitter gets it). The drafting detail is the dispute prevention.
Relocation
Moving with a child is its own legal standard.
When a parent wants to move with the child — for work, family, or a fresh start — Colorado applies a distinct analysis under C.R.S. § 14-10-129, and the analysis differs depending on whether the move arises during the initial case or after final orders exist — either way centered on the child's best interests and the statutory relocation factors. These are among the hardest motions in family law, with little middle ground. If a move is even on your horizon, that conversation should happen before the plans harden — not after.
Common Questions
Scheduling questions I hear weekly.
What schedule will the court order?
The one your facts support. Courts commonly land on substantial time with both parents when geography and circumstances allow — but the specific structure is built from school, work, distance, and the child's needs. I draft schedules the way I draft settlement agreements: precisely, because precision is what keeps you out of court later.
Can I move out of state with my kids?
Not unilaterally once a case or orders exist. Relocation requires either agreement or a court's decision under a demanding analysis. Talk to me before making commitments — the sequencing of a relocation request affects its odds.
The other parent keeps missing their time. Can I withhold it?
No — and don't. Parenting time and child support are separate obligations; self-help on either undermines you. Document the pattern and address it properly: through modification if the schedule no longer reflects reality, or enforcement if it's defiance.
The rest of this chapter.
Parental responsibilities and parenting time under Colorado's best-interests standard, support that reflects real income, and the hard cases: relocation and custody across state lines.
- Parental Responsibilitiesbest interests, decided on credibility→
- Parenting Timeschedules engineered for real lifeYou are here
- Child Supportthe 2026 guidelines, and owner income→
- Relocation & Move-Awaytwo doors, different rules→
- Interstate & International Custodywhich state decides, before what it decides→
- Custody for Executives & Business Ownersparenting plans for demanding careers→
- CFI & PRE Guidepreparing for the evaluator→
- False Allegationsdefending against abuse claims→
- Supervised Parenting Timewhen it is ordered, and how it ends→
- Colorado Custody Termsthe vocabulary, translated→
- Parenting-Time Schedulesthe common arrangements and their trade-offs→
Engagement
Bring me your family's real calendar. We'll build the order around it.
A consultation is a scheduled working session — in person in Greenwood Village or by video — in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid meeting, not a free call and not a sales pitch; my assistant quotes the consultation fee when you schedule. There is no chatbot here: the contact form and the phone both reach my office, my assistant reviews every inquiry personally, and the meeting goes on my calendar. Please hold the confidential details until we have run a conflicts check.