Visitation in the U.S.

Usually speaking, visitation is considered only a concession granted to the non-custodial parent of any child of the family. The normal visitation awards by the family court in most U.S. states consists of alternating weekends and some holidays (regularly amounting to four days a month unless the parent allows an increase in shared parenting time).
However, the child, at or around the age of 13, depending on the state, may decide in which parent's home to live without government interference.
Parents (and in some jurisdictions grandparents) frequently consider that they have a right to visitation or access; however, courts in several countries have used the subjective policy of the best interests of the child to deny parental or grandparental access to the children. This is generally establish in cases when custody of the child(ren) is doubtful and there is a history of interference with visitation. In such high conflict cases, there are often allegation of child abuse and/or domestic violence.
In high conflict cases, visitation may be supervised by a social worker, psychologist, guardian ad litem, or other third party while the noncustodial parent visits with the child.
Many non custodial parents have visitation orders that allow the child to visit with them without any supervision. These visits often take place away from the custodial residence. Often the non custodial parent is granted overnight visitation, weekend visitation, or vacation visitation.
Parents may also share custody and may agree to permit visitation. In these situations a court order may not be desired, though sometimes it is obtained to forestall later disputes about what the parents had previously agreed to, and to allow the courts to have some oversight over the children (which they normally have under statute and under the parens patriae power).