When couples with children divorce, many people may assume that the parents will separate and maintain their own households while the children are shuttled between the two. However, this is not always the case. According to Psychology Today, a new trend in co-parenting, Bird’s Nesting, is making it so that more children stay in their homes without having to rearrange their living conditions every few days.
Bird’s nest co-parenting is a relatively new concept. Psychology Today reports that the arrangement basically involves the parents rotating in and out of the household on a schedule instead of making the children do so. This relieves stress on the children and helps them maintain as much normalcy as possible from their lives prior to their parents’ split. The arrangement can have many variations, such as the former couple sharing a second dwelling to minimize costs, each person maintaining a separate home for their “off” days, or for both parents to remain in the house at all times, just in their own spaces or rooms. While the concept may be out of reach for many warring couples, it is very possible for those who split amicably.
The Boston Globe reports that this type of co-parenting is becoming more popular for many reasons. First among them is the trend away from granting one spouse, usually the mother, sole physical custody. Instead, more former couples than ever before are being granted joint custody with equal timeshares. This makes it more difficult for parents to justify moving their children from one home to the other every few days or weeks based on their own life choices. Additionally, more parents seem to be taking into account what their children desire, which is to stay in their own homes.
