When you’re going through a divorce with children, you don’t necessarily have to set up a traditional custody schedule. What most couples do is separate their own living situations and then move the children back and forth from one parent’s house to the other. But there is another option, known as birdnesting.
With birdnesting, the children are never required to move—they simply stay in one central home the entire time, and it is the parents who cycle in and out. Couples will sometimes do this if they already have an established family home that is close to the children’s school and neighborhood friends. It just makes sense to let them continue living there, giving them stability, and the parents can still share custody by just dividing their time in the home.
The main drawback is the expense
The reason this doesn’t work for many couples is that it can be more expensive. The parents need to work together to pay for the family home where the children live. Each parent then needs to have another house or apartment. If they can compromise, they may be able to share one other residence, but it could mean that they need a total of three different homes.
This is why it can be a viable solution in a high-asset divorce. Many couples who are splitting up with a high net worth already own multiple properties. They also have the resources to rent a nearby apartment or something of this nature. As such, it’s important for couples in higher income brackets to know that they can use these creative custody solutions to put their children first.
This helps to demonstrate some of the options you have during a divorce, so be sure you know what legal steps to take.