Parenting Plans in Ontario

What Is a Parenting Plan?

A parenting plan is a written document that sets out how separated or divorcing parents intend to care for their child or children going forward. Rather than being a single legal concept on its own, a parenting plan is generally the practical tool parents use to work through and record decisions about a regular schedule, holidays and special days, decision-making, communication between the parents, and everyday logistics.

Parents can generally build a parenting plan on their own, with the help of a family mediator, or with legal advice — there is no single required process. What matters more than who helps draft it is whether the plan is realistic for the family's circumstances and genuinely reflects what is workable for the child involved.

Parenting Plan vs. Parenting Time vs. Decision-Making Responsibility

It helps to keep the parenting plan itself separate from the two underlying legal concepts it usually addresses. Parenting time is the legal concept describing when a child is in each parent's care. Decision-making responsibility is the separate legal concept describing who has authority over major, long-term decisions such as education, health care, and religious upbringing. Neither concept requires a written plan to exist — a court order or agreement can address parenting time and decision-making responsibility without ever using the words "parenting plan."

A parenting plan is simply a document that takes those concepts and turns them into specific, workable detail for one family — for example, translating "decision-making responsibility is shared jointly" into an actual description of how the parents will discuss a change of school. For the legal rules behind each concept, see our dedicated guides to parenting time and decision-making responsibility; this page focuses on building the plan itself.

Is a Parenting Plan Legally Binding?

Generally, no — not on its own. A parenting plan that exists only as a working document between parents, without more, is typically not something a court will directly enforce. It generally becomes legally binding and enforceable once it is incorporated into a properly signed separation or parenting agreement — which usually needs to be in writing, signed by both parents, and witnessed — or once its terms are turned into a court order.

This does not mean an informal parenting plan is useless before that point. Many parents rely on an unsigned working plan for months or years, and it can still serve as a helpful reference and a foundation for a later, more formal agreement or order. But if enforceability matters to your situation, it is worth understanding this distinction early, rather than assuming a plan is binding simply because both parents wrote it down and followed it for a while.

What a Parenting Plan Typically Covers

There is no single required format for a parenting plan, and what any one family includes will depend on their circumstances. In general, though, parenting plans tend to address a similar core set of topics:

• A regular, day-to-day parenting time schedule
• How holidays, birthdays, and other special days are shared or alternated
• How decision-making responsibility will work for major decisions
• How the parents will communicate with each other, and how often
• How information about the child will be shared (school, medical, and similar updates)
• Transportation and exchange logistics between households
• How the plan will be reviewed or changed over time

Some families also address topics such as introducing new partners to the child, contact with extended family, or how travel outside the province or country will be handled. The right level of detail varies — some parents prefer a fairly brief plan, while others find it helpful to spell out more specifics to reduce future disagreement.

Regular Schedule and Holidays

The regular schedule is usually the heart of a parenting plan — describing which days and overnights a child spends with each parent during a typical week or two-week period. There is no schedule that Ontario law requires or presumes; what works depends on the child's age, routine, school, and each parent's availability.

Alongside the regular schedule, most parenting plans set out a separate arrangement for holidays and special days, since these often do not follow the everyday pattern. Common approaches include alternating specific holidays year to year, splitting a longer school break in half, or setting fixed traditions for certain days regardless of whose regular time it would otherwise be. Being specific about how holiday time overrides the regular schedule tends to prevent confusion later.

Decision-Making and Communication

A parenting plan can describe, in practical terms, how decision-making responsibility will actually work day to day — for example, whether one parent has final say in a particular category, or whether both parents are expected to discuss and try to agree before a decision is made, and what happens if they cannot.

Communication provisions cover how the parents will stay in touch about the child — by text, email, a shared calendar or co-parenting app, or another method — and how quickly each parent is expected to respond, particularly for anything urgent. Some plans also address how the child will communicate with the other parent during scheduled time with the first parent, such as by phone or video call.

Building In Flexibility as Children Grow

A schedule and set of arrangements that suit a toddler often will not suit the same child as a teenager. Because of this, many parenting plans include a general expectation that the plan will be reviewed periodically, or when a significant change occurs — a child starting school, a parent's work schedule changing, or a child expressing a new preference as they get older.

Building in some flexibility does not mean the plan has to be vague. Many parents find it works well to keep the current schedule specific and enforceable, while separately noting that both parents agree to revisit the plan at a stated interval or life stage, rather than leaving changes to be negotiated from scratch each time a disagreement comes up.

Turning a Plan Into an Agreement or Order

Once parents have worked out a parenting plan they are comfortable with, they generally have a few options for what to do with it. Some parents keep it as an informal working document. Others choose to formalize it by having it written into a separation agreement — reviewed, signed, and witnessed — which is generally the more straightforward route to making the arrangement legally binding without going to court.

Where parents cannot fully agree, or where one parent wants the added enforceability of a court order, the same plan can often form the basis of a proposed consent order, or be addressed through a contested family court application if necessary. For a general orientation to how a family court case works in Ontario, including where parenting issues fit in, see getting started with family court.

Common Mistakes

• Assuming a written plan is automatically enforceable without a signed agreement or order
• Copying a generic template without adapting it to the child's actual needs and age
• Leaving holiday and special-day arrangements out, or too vague to apply in practice
• Not addressing how disagreements about the plan itself will be resolved
• Treating the plan as permanent, with no built-in process for review as the child grows
• Assuming a parenting plan on its own resolves child support or property issues

Frequently Asked Questions