When parents in Plymouth divorce, they may be concerned about how their children will be affected by the split. Children are resilient but having to adjust to moving from one household to the other for shared custody periods can be stressful. Some parents choose to try to alleviate this stress through a unique child custody arrangement known as nesting.

Nesting is a type of co-parenting arrangement. In traditional child custody arrangements, the child resides with one parent some of the time and the other parent some of the time. This means the child will need to be transferred between two separate households. Through nesting, however, the child remains in the family home, and it is the parents who rotate between living in the family home with the child during their parenting time and living in a separate apartment when it is not their parenting time. The aim of nesting is to provide the child with the stability he or she might not experience through traditional child custody arrangements.

However, nesting requires a lot of cooperation. Parents will need to agree on household rules the child will be expected to follow, and they will also have to determine what each of their roles will be with regards to cleaning, lawn work, grocery shopping, and general upkeep of the home. The parents will also need to be able to afford both the mortgage on the home (depending on whether one or both parties will be responsible for it) as well as rent on a separate apartment.

Parents who are on good terms with one another despite their divorce might want to consider whether nesting is an option for them. Their child may benefit from remaining in the home they are used to, as well as the same school and community they were in when their parents were married. However, nesting is not right for everyone. In the end, any child custody arrangements must meet the best interests of the child, whether that means nesting or more traditional child custody arrangements.