Primary Parent or Primary carer is a term to describe the parent who has most parenting time

Parenting time

Parenting time is the amount of time each parent spends with their children when parents separate. Disagreements about how to measure it and how to divide it often cause controversy between the parents.- United Kingdom :...

 with the children after separation. The other parent is then known as the secondary parent - arguably less pejorative than terms like single parent

Single parent

Single parent is a term that is mostly used to suggest that one parent has most of the day to day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, which would categorize them as the dominant caregiver...

 (when in fact there are two parents) or Parent With Care.

United Kingdom

The Primary carer or parent is overwhelmingly the mother

Mother

A mother, mum, mom, momma, or mama is a woman who has raised a child, given birth to a child, and/or supplied the ovum that grew into a child. Because of the complexity and differences of a mother's social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to specify a universally...

 in the UK, with around 90% of primary carers being mothers

Mothers

Mothers was a club in Erdington, near Birmingham, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Mothers opened above an old furniture store in Erdington High Street on August 9, 1968. The club, run by John 'Spud' Taylor and promoter Phil Myatt, closed its doors on 3 January 1971...

.

In the UK, the status of primary carer is crucial as there is an effective winner takes all (benefits) system, whereby 100% of the rewards for being a parent

Parent

A parent is a caretaker of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is of a child . Children can have one or more parents, but they must have two biological parents. Biological parents consist of the male who sired the child and the female who gave birth to the child...

 go the primary carer, normally the mother

Mother

A mother, mum, mom, momma, or mama is a woman who has raised a child, given birth to a child, and/or supplied the ovum that grew into a child. Because of the complexity and differences of a mother's social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to specify a universally...

 and none to the secondary carer, normally the father

Father

A father, Pop, Dad, or Papa, is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother...

.

Organisations such as Families Need Fathers say this is not in the children's best interests and are campaigning to try and remove this alleged indirect discrimination and prejudice in calling for a presumption

Presumption

In the law of evidence, a presumption of a particular fact can be made without the aid of proof in some situations. The types of presumption includes a rebuttable discretionary presumption, a rebuttable mandatory presumption, and an irrebuttable or conclusive presumption. The invocation of a...

 of shared parenting

Shared parenting

Shared parenting refers to a collaborative arrangement in child custody or divorce determinations in which the care of the children is equal or more than substantially shared between the biological parents.- Nature and History :...

 and equal separation of parenting time

Parenting time

Parenting time is the amount of time each parent spends with their children when parents separate. Disagreements about how to measure it and how to divide it often cause controversy between the parents.- United Kingdom :...

after separation, as happens with financial matters following a divorce.

External links

• http://www.fnf.org.uk
• http://www.cmoptions.org/en/calculator/calculator.asp
• http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/civil/guidance/eligibility_calculator.asp
• http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts1991/ukpga_19910048_en_1