Figuring out your living situation after a divorce is difficult for multiple reasons, but if you are looking at a joint custody situation with your ex-spouse you will have specific concerns regarding the future of your family. Namely, you are going to have to figure out a way to continue parenting with your ex-spouse even though you are no longer a married couple.
One way that some families have dealt with this issue is by choosing “nesting.” A nesting living situation involves the children staying in one house, much like baby birds living in a nest. In this arrangement the parents are the ones who move in and out of the family home, like parent birds attending to the babies.
What are some advantages to nesting?
The biggest advantage is that nesting provides a great deal of stability for your children. Particularly if you and your ex-spouse commit to maintaining the prior family home, your children may not need to move at all. Depending on where you live, nesting may be the only realistic way that you can afford to keep your children in the same neighborhood.
Nesting can also solve a lot of conflict surrounding children moving. Particularly for older children who might resent moving frequently according to a parenting schedule, you may avoid a lot of fighting and grief with nesting.
What are some challenges with nesting?
In order for nesting to work, you and your ex-spouse must still be able to communicate well and frequently. You will still be splitting bills and sharing a living situation. Nesting is often not possible for ex-couples who are on bad terms with each other.