Could your kids benefit from post-divorce nesting?

It is important that readers of this Colorado family law blog understand that no one strategy for caring for kids following a divorce will work for everyone. In fact, different families may need to employ highly variable and unique plans to ensure that their children are provided with what they need to thrive. The best interests of the children should guide child custody and parental visitation cases in our state’s courts, but one highly unique form of child-sharing following a divorce is emerging as a potential means of protecting children’s emotional health.

The practice is called bird-nesting or nesting. It involves maintaining one residence, usually, the family home, where the children of the divorced parties will permanently live. Instead of moving the kids from house to house to accommodate the parents’ custody schedules, the parents move into the home with the kids when it is their turn to be with them.

Nesting can help kids because it does not force them to take on a new and scary normal in the wake of their parents’ divorces. Rather, it allows kids time to figure out how their parents will still love and support them, all while staying in their own homes and at their regular schools.

As stated, not all families may thrive in a nesting plan, and some believe that nesting should be a short-term practice, even for parents and kids who can make it work. To learn more about the options that Colorado families have when it comes to developing plans for parenting and custody, it is a good idea for readers to contact their local family law attorneys for case-driven guidance.