providing protective supervision; watching over or safeguarding; "daycare that is educational and not just custodial"; "a guardian angel"; "tutelary gods"

Relating to custody or guardianship.

A vessel for preserving sacred objects such as relics.

The "custodial" parent refers to the parent who has the children in his/her care. Although it can be said that the parent who has the children this weekend is the "custodial" parent for the weekend, most often when a parent is referred to as the "custodial" parent, people mean the parent who has the children in his/her care for more than 50% of the time.