Nesting Co-Parenting: Is It Right for You?

Nesting co-parenting is a growing trend among divorced parents. It provides a stable home for the children of divorced couples. It can also increase time with both parents by eliminating packing and travel.

On the other hand, nesting co-parenting can cost more than other living arrangements and provide less privacy. It also requires a much higher level of cooperation than living in separate homes.

Learn what nesting co-parenting is and how to decide whether this arrangement can benefit you and your family.

Nesting Co-Parenting

Nesting co-parenting, also called bird nesting, is an arrangement where the divorced couple retains the family home. The children live full-time in the family home and the parents take turns living with their children.

In a nesting co-parenting arrangement, one parent might live in the family home for a week. During that week, the parent handles all of the parental duties, like cooking for the kids, cleaning the home, and making sure the kids get to school.

The next week, the other parent moves into the family home and the first parent moves out. Over the following week, the other parent handles parental duties.

Benefits of Nesting Co-Parenting

The benefits of nesting co-parenting flow primarily to the children. By keeping the family house, the children can remain in a familiar environment. They sleep in the same bedrooms every night, regardless of which parent is “on duty.” And they avoid the trauma of frequent packing and moving between homes.

The children continue to attend the same schools. They can also keep their friends. And since they do not need to move locations to visit their parents, they don’t miss out on extracurricular activities, hobbies, and sports.

Children’s family structure changes drastically after a divorce, but nesting co-parenting can keep things as normal as possible by keeping children on the same schedule and in the same environment as before the divorce.

Drawbacks of Nesting Co-Parenting

Nesting co-parenting can cost more than more traditional living arrangements. Each co-parent needs a place to go when they’re “off duty.” Thus, rather than maintaining two separate households, the divorced couple must maintain two separate households plus the family home.

Nesting co-parenting can be disruptive for the parents. Instead of moving to a location convenient for their workplace or somewhere new, parents must stay close to the family home so they can shift smoothly when they go on duty.

A nesting arrangement also provides less privacy for the divorced couple. If either ex-spouse remarries or begins cohabiting with a new partner, they must either move between homes together or leave their new partner during their week on duty.

Is Nesting Co-Parenting Right for You?

Nesting co-parenting requires a high degree of coordination and cooperation between recently divorced spouses. Not every divorced couple can manage this level of teamwork. If your divorce was not amicable, you might not have the option of nesting or co-parenting.

Legal Aspects of Nesting Co-Parenting

In addition to the interpersonal relationship necessary for nesting co-parenting, you also need to negotiate a divorce settlement that sets out the nesting co-parenting arrangement.

To discuss your divorce and the possibility of nesting co-parenting, contact Gucciardo Family Law for a free initial consultation.