Casewell
How to read this in the UK
Three things need to stay separate in a record. What the arrangement says, what actually happened, and the file that shows it. Blur them together and a reader has to take your word for it. Keep them apart and the record speaks for itself.
The UK is not one family-law system. England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own rules, forms and vocabulary. Use the words that appear in your own order or agreement rather than a term borrowed from somewhere else.
Keep the complete source file, not a crop of it. Write events in the order they happened, and say plainly where something is missing or unclear. A family solicitor can work with a record like that. They cannot work with a reconstruction.
Which part of the UK your case is in
England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own family courts and rules. Say which one your case is in, and use the same words your order or plan uses. Only mention addresses or schools when they help explain what happened. Before you treat a private timeline as a court document, check the rules with a solicitor.
Log scheduled vs actual — both halves
The unit of proof is the pair: what the plan said, and what happened. For every exchange record the scheduled date and time, the actual time (or no-show), who initiated any change, the stated reason, and whether makeup time was agreed and later honored. Log it the same day.
The pattern this builds answers the questions that actually get asked: How much time did each parent really have? Who cancelled, how often, with how much notice? Did makeup time materialize? A parenting time log with a hundred boring, consistent entries is exactly what "proof" looks like.
Third-party corroboration
Your log is stronger when disinterested records echo it:
- School and daycare sign-in/out sheets — who dropped off and picked up.
- Activity rosters and coaches — who brought the child to practice.
- Medical and dental visit records — which parent attended.
- Travel confirmations for trips taken with the child.
- Receipts from the zoo, the cinema, the restaurant — dated, placed, and mundane.
None of these were created to help you, which is precisely their value. You don't need to collect them all continuously — know they exist. Also, align your log with the reality they'll confirm.
Photos, done tastefully
A few dated photos from your weekends — the hike, the birthday, homework at the kitchen table. Corroborate presence and are worth taking anyway. Original files keep their timestamp metadata. That's enough. What to avoid: photographing the other parent at exchanges, staging evidence shots of the child, or turning every visit into a documentation session. The child's experience of the weekend matters more than its evidentiary value. And a child who feels surveilled tells someone.
Counting time correctly
Legal areas commonly count overnights. Some count hours. Percentages drive support calculations more often than custody labels do. Whichever applies to you, a complete log converts either way. See the parenting time calculator guide for tracking planned vs actual vs missed vs made-up time so the arithmetic is a filter, not a project. In Casewell, parenting time entries export as a dated PDF filtered to exactly the date range in question.
If time is being interfered with
Denied or chronically disrupted parenting time is a legal issue, not just a logging one. Document each instance factually — request, denial or obstruction, exact words, effect on the child. The way missed handovers are documented, and take the pattern to your attorney rather than self-remedying (withholding support or grabbing extra time creates problems that outlive the dispute). The record's job is to make the pattern undeniable. The remedy's job belongs to the court.
Before you share your record
Everything above is about keeping your own record. Before you show any of it to someone else, a few extra steps help.
Work from a copy and leave the original untouched. Take out any private details the reader does not need.
Check that every important sentence links back to a date or a source. If one does not, rewrite the sentence rather than filling the gap with a guess.
Family law is different in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Make clear which one your case is in, and ask a family solicitor what the court rules let you share.
What a coherent UK record looks like
Casewell keeps the dated entry, its source file and any later addition together in one private timeline. When a review is needed, select only the records that answer the question in front of you and share those with a family solicitor.
Try for freeWhat counts as proof of parenting time?
A contemporaneous log of scheduled vs actual time, corroborated by third-party records — school sign-outs, activity attendance, appointment records. Plus dated photos and receipts from time actually spent.
How do courts count parenting time?
Most commonly by overnights, sometimes by hours, and the split often feeds support calculations. Keep a complete log and the counting method becomes arithmetic rather than argument.
What should I do if my parenting time is being denied?
Document every instance factually — the scheduled time, what happened, exact messages. And raise the pattern with your attorney. Don't retaliate by withholding support or self-adjusting the schedule.
Does this cover Scotland and Northern Ireland too?
No. England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate family-law systems, forms and terms. Use this page to keep your own record in order, and get advice from someone who works in your part of the UK.
Sources
England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate family-law systems, forms and terms. The official source gives orientation only. This page is a documentation guide, not legal advice.