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Parenting Time Log: What to Record
A parenting time log is a running note of exchanges, missed time, calls, and schedule changes. The useful ones answer the same questions every time: what was planned, what happened, who was there, and what you saved. This article is a format. It is not legal advice, and it does not predict what a judge will do with your notes.
Fields worth repeating
- Full date, including the year.
- Scheduled time, with a pointer to the order or agreement if you know the clause.
- Actual time, or "did not happen."
- How much time was lost, in minutes or as a whole visit.
- Place, specific enough to find again.
- Adults present. Do not pump a child for quotes.
- What you saw, heard, or received. Not what you think it meant.
- Effect on the child that you can observe, such as a missed meal or a missing homework folder.
- The file you saved, and any short follow-up you sent.
If you want the yearly overnight total for a pattern, use the parenting time calculator. The log is for the nights that did not match the pattern. The pictures of those patterns are on the custody calendar page.
A fictional sample entry
Not a real family.
- Date
- April 4, 2026
- Scheduled
- Friday pickup at 6:00 p.m., north parking lot of the elementary school.
- Actual
- Parent A arrived at 5:54 p.m. Parent B and the child arrived at 6:41 p.m.
- Difference
- 41 minutes.
- What happened
- At 6:12 p.m. Parent A texted, "I am here for pickup. What is your ETA?" Parent B replied at 6:14 p.m., "Running behind." At 6:41 p.m. Parent B said, "We had to finish dinner."
- Child
- The planned dinner at Parent A's home was dropped. The homework folder was not in the backpack.
- Proof
- Screenshot of the text. Photo at the lot at 6:18 p.m.
- Follow-up
- Text at 8:22 p.m.: "Please tell me earlier if pickup will be late so I can change plans."
Mistakes that make a log hard to use
- Writing the motive instead of the event. "Arrived at 6:41 p.m." can stay. "Did it to punish me" cannot.
- Only logging the other parent's bad days.
- Waiting until a hearing is scheduled, then rebuilding a year from memory.
- Saving screenshots in a camera roll with no date in the note.
- Mixing relationship complaints into the same paragraph as the pickup time.
Hand your lawyer a short list of the dates that matter, the files for those dates, and the full timeline if they want context. An organized export beats a midnight email full of loose images. Custody Journal is built for that timeline. More on the writing itself is in better documentation habits.