UK Bank Holidays and Shared Parenting

Bank holidays normally land on Fridays or Mondays, creating long weekends. Most schools, shops and banks close or operate at reduced hours.

This can be a welcome departure from routine, as it allows you to spend quality time with your child when they're not preoccupied with school and extracurricular activities.

However, departing from your normal residence and contact schedule can cause conflict over shared parenting and make holidays stressful.

To avoid this, make a holiday schedule with the other parent, and add it to your UK parenting plan. You can handle each bank holiday and special occasion however you agree: alternate which parent gets it, let one parent have it every year, share it, etc.

Bank holidays

The bank holidays to include in your schedule are:

• New Year's Day — 1st January
• St. Patrick's Day — 17th March (only in Northern Ireland)
• Good Friday — Friday prior to Easter Sunday
• Easter Monday — day after Easter Sunday (not observed in Scotland)
• May Day — first Monday of May (Early May Bank Holiday in Scotland)
• Spring Bank Holiday — last Monday of May
• Orangemen's Day — 12th July (only in Northern Ireland)
• Summer Bank Holiday — last Monday of August (first Monday of August in Scotland)
• St. Andrew's Day — 30th November (only in Scotland)
• Christmas Day — 25th December
• Boxing Day — 26th December
• New Year's Eve — 31st December

The U.K. government website has a list of bank holidays updated with the dates for each year.

Other special occasions

Bank holidays are in addition to inset (in-service) days, which you should also plan for in your shared parenting schedule.

Other occasions you may want to add to your schedule include:

• Your child's birthday
• Parents' birthdays
• Religious holidays, such as Easter
• Burns Night — 25th January (Scotland)
• St. David's Day — 1st March (Wales)
• Mother's Day — fourth Sunday of Lent
• Father's Day — third Sunday of June
• Guy Fawkes Night — 5th November
• Remembrance Sunday — second Sunday of November
• Christmas Eve — 24th December

The easiest way to make a holiday contact schedule

There's a lot to think about when you build a holiday schedule. You'll want it to address weekend and midweek holidays, reflect special occasions unique to your family (like birthdays) and work for years to come.

The Custody X Change app makes it easy. Just open your Custody X Change calendar and follow our steps to make a holiday schedule.

To make a residence and contact schedule quickly and affordably, turn to Custody X Change. In no time, you'll have written and visual versions that include the holidays you care about.