Legal versus physical custody
Legal custody is decision-making — schooling, healthcare, religion. Physical custody is where the child lives. They are decided separately, and joint legal custody with unequal physical custody is a very common outcome.
Confusing the two causes a surprising amount of unnecessary conflict.
What courts actually weigh
The child's health, safety and welfare, the nature and amount of contact with both parents, and stability. Age matters: schedules that suit a toddler are not the ones that suit a fourteen-year-old.
Practical geography matters more than parents expect. A schedule requiring a ninety-minute weekday commute across LA County will fail regardless of how equitable it looks.
Common workable patterns
Alternating weekends with a midweek visit. The 2-2-3 rotation for younger children who need frequent contact with both parents. Week-on week-off for older children who can manage longer separations. Extended summer blocks with the parent who has less term-time contact.
Any of these can work. The failure mode is almost never the pattern — it is exchange logistics, school runs and the absence of a plan for when someone is late.
Write down the boring parts
Exchange time and location, who does school pickup, what happens if a parent is delayed, how holidays alternate, how the schedule is changed by agreement. Vagueness here is what brings parents back to court.