It is likely that even the smoothest divorces still contain a high amount of emotional turmoil. However, going through the divorce process with children involved means that you will be working together with your soon-to-be ex-spouse for many years to come.
Shuttling children between two separate households can be very challenging, and older children very commonly object to this arrangement. In response, some divorcing families are experimenting with a nesting living situation, which involves the children staying in a single residence and the parents moving in and out.
How does it work?
Of course, the specifics of any family’s individual nesting arrangement will be unique to their needs. However, nesting situations often arise of their own volition at the first stage of divorce. This is when the parents want to have space from each other but they do not want to needlessly disrupt the lives of the children.
Depending on the length of the nesting arrangement, the parent who is not in the family home with the children may simply stay with other friends or family. In longer-term nesting situations sometimes the parents choose to have a separate apartment for the off-duty spouse.
What are the challenges?
You will need to have very good communication with your ex-spouse in order for a nesting situation to work. Essentially, you will still be maintaining the family home together, just not living in it at the same time. You will still need to manage bills and other family responsibilities together.
Nesting situations are also usually temporary. Most of the time, the parents will want to establish permanent separate residences at some point.
