Joint physical custody (also known as shared physical custody, shared residential custody, shared parenting time, and so on) indicates that your kid spends a significant amount of time living with both parents, and both have equal responsibility for the child's physical care. It is most often used to describe the parenting arrangement in place with regard to children between divorced or separated parents. In addition to being legal terminology, "joint physical custody" has different definitions depending on who you ask. Traditionally, people have defined it as splitting up parental rights and responsibilities without actually dividing up physical custody of the child. But because kids today are spending more time with their parents due to divorce rates increasing, people now tend to define joint physical custody in terms of percentage of time spent with each parent. So if one parent can prove that they have primary residency (i.e., the majority of time together), then they would be awarded primary residency, which would then allow them to define their own form of joint physical custody. Primary residency is determined based on two factors: the length of time that a parent has been actively involved in their child's life and the importance of that relationship. If one parent has been involved with the child for a long period of time, they are likely to be considered the primary resident for purposes of defining joint physical custody.