Getting What Is Rightfully Yours

Nesting Plans: What To Know About A New Parenting Choice

29 January 2019

Estelle Mathieu

When parents are reluctant about going through with a divorce because of the children, a fairly recent addition to the usual child custody planning process is slowing gaining popularity. Bird's nesting provides the children of divorce with a single home while the parents move back and forth. Read on to learn more.

How Does Nesting Work?

The need to put the best interests of the child first in divorce situations is at work for all legal decisions, and this plan seems to place a very high priority on that need. In many cases, a traditional parenting plan has the child residing primarily with one parent while the other gets visitation rights, which is known as joint custody. The other common choice is shared or 50/50 parenting, where the child bounces from parent to parent to allow them the opportunity to spend an approximation of equal time with each.

With bird's nesting, one parent at a time resides with the child while the child stays put in the home, preferably the family home that they are used to. When the other parent is not with the child, they use alternate living arrangements. For example, one parent might live with the child in the family home for a week or two while the other parent resides in another home. Then the parents switch places. Often, the parents use the same alternate location, such as an inexpensive rented apartment.

Organization and Planning

As you can imagine, this method of dealing with divorce and child custody can be challenging for the parents. On the other hand, the child benefits from the security of staying in the family home, the same friends and neighbors, and the same schools. To make this work, keep the following in mind:

1. The parents must approach the financial ramifications of this plan from the very beginning. For example, decide who will pay for the alternate home and who will pay the family home expenses.

2. The alternate home should be in a convenient location for traveling to and from and should be near to work for both parents.

3. Just as with other parenting plans, make decisions ahead of time to deal with holidays, school vacations, birthdays, sick days, work obligations, and more.

4. This form of parenting can work well for those who cannot decide on how to deal with the family at this time.

Bird's Nest plans can be the perfect solution for some but are not right for all. Speak to a law office like Marchese Law Firm about this and other parenting options after a divorce.

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