Rebuilding your life after a divorce is often one of the most difficult parts of the process. Particularly if you and your ex-spouse have children together, it is highly likely that you will need to continue a relationship with them in order to effectively parent in joint custody.
Concocting new living situations is very challenging. For instance, moving children frequently between two separate parental households is not the best solution for every American family. According to Psychology Today, some families have chosen to engage in nesting as a way to mitigate post-divorce living problems.
What is nesting?
In a “traditional” co-parenting arrangement, the parents set up separate households. After, the children will move between the houses as per the custody arrangement. Nesting takes a different approach to this issue.
Rather than the parents having two separate households, the parents instead elect to maintain the family home. With nesting, the children stay in the same house, and instead it is the parents doing the moving. The parents do not live in the house together.
What are the benefits?
Particularly if you have older children, you may encounter resistance to moving them frequently. For families with children close to high school graduation, maintaining the family home until they matriculate can help reduce or eliminate many conflicts.
In some instances, nesting may be the only realistic way to keep the children in the same neighborhood with the same friends and same school district. This is particularly true for families who live in high cost of living areas. Nesting is not for everybody, but the unique benefits it provides makes it a good choice for many families.
