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Michigan
Litigation Blog.
The seasoned lawyers and litigators at The Rubinstein Law Firm are here to share their insights with you.

What is bird nesting?

Divorcing couples have a few options when it comes to cooperative co-parenting, which is a popular form of raising children after a divorce that allows both parents to have equal presence in their child’s life.

However, some of these options have a little too much close cooperation for some parents, who need some time and space to recover from the aftermath of the split. Nesting might prove to be useful in such a situation.

How does it work?

Divorce Mag points out some of the biggest and best benefits associated with bird nesting. As the name implies, this form of housing is styled in a way similar to how birds will stay in their nests when raising a chick. The chick remains within the nest, while the parents will visit it to bring food and teach it how to fly.

Likewise, in a bird nesting situation, the child will stay in the family home permanently instead of traveling between their parent’s locations in accordance with a visitation schedule. Instead, the parents will take turns living in the family home with the child.

Will it work for you?

Of course, this requires both parents to have additional accommodations that they can stay at when not living in the family home, so it requires the right circumstances or finances to make it work. It also requires a base level of trust between the co-parents, as one will have to leave the family home to the other when not staying in it.

This setup does not work for everyone. But for those it works for, it provides the child of divorce with crucial stability in a very upsetting time, which is often more than worth it for divorcing parents.