Q: in the state of Oregon parenting plan worksheet there is a section with 2 boxes; "parent a will be primary resididence"

A: Oregon Law for Parenting/Custody if left to a Judge to decide will award custody to one and only one parent and the other parent will get some amount of parenting time. Any other type of parenting plan is really by mutual agreement between the parents. The work sheet is just for you or both you and the other parent, to have some guidance with coming up with your own original plan. So really, you can define whatever term you use and as long as the other parent agrees to it, the court will order it.

So let us talk about a court ordered plan with no agreement. The residence of the parent given custody could be called the primary residence. It would be where the child spends most of their time. The custodial parent would make all the day to day decisions such as which school to enroll the child in and would make appointments for non-emergency doctor's visits, such as physicals and vaccines and dental check ups. The other parent would have the child for visitation and during that time would have the ability to make any plans with the children they want to make and they don't need to stick to any plan that the custodial parent has. So even if the custodial parent signs the child up for a sport or wants them to go to a specific church on Sunday, the other parent gets to decide how the time will be spent with the child when the child is visiting and is not obligated to take the child to the sport events or to the church on Sunday. (They would have to make sure the child doesn't miss school because the law requires the child to go to school.)

So where you are designing a unique plan that isn't where one parent has custody, but instead you call it "shared custody" it is sometimes helpful to designate one parent as the primary parent. I typically do this when one parent has more than 50% of the time. If I were going to designate a parent as being the primary parent, I might go further and define it if it isn't obvious from the plan. I think the point is to send a signal to both parents and the child that there is one location where the child can leave all their personal belongings and will mostly sleep at on school nights. But it isn't a predefined term. You have to define it. (It may be obvious where say your plan has the child sleeping at one parent's house on all school nights even if the other parent picks them up after school and spends time with them.) First and foremost you need to make sure that the plan favors a stable situation for the child so they aren't being dragged back and forth to satisfy the egos of their parents. They need to know where they go to eat dinner, where they will be to do their homework, and where they will be at bedtime on a somewhat consistent basis.