How to share a custody calendar with grandparents and babysitters
Guides · September 30, 2026. The families in the examples are made up.
A grandparent or babysitter who checks a custody calendar usually has one question: whose day is it, and is there anything to know about pickup? Start from the schedule your family already agreed on, decide what each person needs to see, and give them one place to check it.
ScheduleShare shows a schedule through a link that opens in any browser, with no app and no account for the person looking. They can also add it to Apple Calendar or Google Calendar as a calendar feed. Here is how to pick the useful details and avoid sharing more than someone needs.
Decide who looks and who keeps it up to date
Make a short list of the people who use the information. A grandparent who helps once a week may only need to know which parent has the kids that day. A babysitter who does pickups may also need the time.
Keep looking separate from keeping the schedule up to date. Someone who helps with a pickup doesn't need to change the calendar. In ScheduleShare, people with a share link can only look. If your co-parent keeps the schedule with you, invite them from the schedule's Share page so they can change days too. Tell everyone else who to ask if something looks wrong.
Use the arrangements your family has already agreed. A calendar shows those arrangements. It doesn't decide what they should be or settle disagreements about them.
Enter the pattern, then check real dates
Start with the regular days, the alternating weekends and the exceptions you already know about, like a holiday or a swapped weekend. Then look at actual dates instead of trusting the pattern's name: two people can use the same name for a rotation and picture different starting weekends.
Go through the next few weeks next to your source schedule. Check the first alternating weekend, a holiday and any change coming up. If a day has nobody on it, or the arrangement isn't settled yet, sort that out before you ask someone else to rely on the calendar.
Check the timezone, especially if anyone travels: ScheduleShare shows every day in the schedule's timezone and names it on the shared page. If you add a time to a day, make sure the people who see it know what it means, such as the pickup time rather than the whole visit.
You can build the schedule and review the calendar before you enter an email, and the last step shows what someone with a link will see. To look around without typing in real details, try an example schedule with made-up names. If you enter your own, an initial or a nickname works as well as your child's name.
Choose Basic or Detailed for each link
Each ScheduleShare link is Basic or Detailed. A Basic link shows which parent has your child each day and nothing else: no notes, no times, no addresses. A Detailed link also shows the notes and pickup times you add to days. Both show the names you entered for your child and for each parent, and a link's calendar feed follows the same choice.
Pick the simplest view that answers the person's question. For example, a family might give the grandparents a Basic link for planning visits and a regular pickup helper a Detailed link with the times. That takes two links: the free 30 days include one share link, and Plus allows as many as you need. Whatever the view, keep private background and unrelated family information out of calendar notes.
Before you send a link, open it yourself and read it as if you knew nothing about the arrangement. Check the names, the dates and any notes that show. A label that is obvious to you may need a word of explanation for someone who looks once a month.
A browser link or a calendar subscription
A browser link suits someone who checks now and then. They can bookmark it and open it when they need to, without signing in or installing anything. The page shows the current schedule each time it opens, so a change you make is there on their next visit.
A calendar feed suits someone who already plans their day in Apple Calendar or Google Calendar, because the schedule shows up next to their other plans. Calendar apps check feeds for changes on their own schedule, so a day you just changed can take hours to update there. The shared page also offers a one-time .ics download. That file is a snapshot and won't change when the schedule does.
For a last-minute change, tell the people affected directly as well, and ask them to check the browser link when timing matters. A calendar entry appearing on someone's phone doesn't mean they saw it or agreed to it.
Say what the link is when you send it
A short note saves confusion. Say what the calendar shows, that people can only look, and who to ask about changes. For example:
This link shows our current schedule. You can open it without an account. Please check it before planning a pickup, and message us if anything is unclear. Please don't forward it.
Adjust it to your situation. Don't hand someone a new pickup or other responsibility only by putting it on the calendar. Confirm it with the person who will do it.
Treat share links as private
ScheduleShare links are long and random, but anyone who has one can open it. They are unlisted, not password-protected, so a forwarded link gives the next person the same view.
Send links only to people you trust, don't post them in large group chats, and use the least detailed view that works. When a link is no longer needed, turn it off from the schedule's Share page, or replace it with a new one. Either way the old link stops working.
Calendar apps can keep days they already downloaded until they refresh. Turning a link off stops new access through it, but it can't take back what someone already saw or copied. Read the privacy policy before adding family details.
Keep it current
When an agreed arrangement changes, update the schedule and tell the people whose plans change. Every so often, check that the regular pattern still matches your routine and that the people who have a link still need it.
ScheduleShare only shows whose day it is. It has no messaging or expense tracking, so keep using whatever your family already uses for those.
What it costs
The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. After that, changing the schedule needs Plus, which is $3 CAD a month or $27 CAD a year. Your co-parent edits on your plan, so they never need Plus. Viewing stays free, links and calendar feeds keep working, and nothing is deleted when the 30 days end. See pricing before you set up a calendar you plan to keep.