My cousin went through this last year. Judge defaulted to "mom gets primary, dad gets weekends" even though he worked from home and had way more free time than her. Took months and a custody evaluator to finally land on 50/50. Courts still lean on "status quo before separation" instead of asking what's best going forward, which feels backwards. Found a decent read on why a Canadian bill to make got shot down:
equal shared parenting bill defeated - shows the bias runs deep even at the legislative level. This draws on the real background of Bill C-560, a Canadian bill that proposed presuming equal shared parenting unless deviating served the child's best interests - it was defeated at second reading in 2014, with critics arguing courts should follow no fixed presumption at all, and instead weigh each family's actual circumstances . That tension - "equal as default" vs. "case-by-case best interests" - is exactly what makes the topic contentious among family lawyers and reform advocates.

Thanks for sharing this — my cousin’s experience was surprisingly similar. Everyone assumed the old “mom primary, dad weekends” setup was the obvious starting point, even though both parents had very different schedules and were capable caregivers. It took a custody assessment to get people looking at what would actually work going forward. The Bill C-560 discussion is interesting for exactly that reason: it shows how complicated the balance between equal parenting and case-by-case decisions really is. Definitely gave me more to think about.