Bird’s nest custody is a unique form of custody that has become more popular in recent years. With that said, it is still relatively uncommon, and it only makes sense in very specific scenarios.
Bird’s nest custody is a form of co-parenting. With co-parenting, divorced parents continue to jointly play a role in their children’s lives after their marriage is over. Rather than living completely separate lives, divorced parents come together to spend time with and make important life decisions for their children.
However, even when divorcing spouses choose to co-parent, their children still split time between their respective homes. One home may be designated as the children’s “home base,” but spending time at both parents’ houses is still an important part of the process of coping and continuing to build on pre-existing bonds. With bird’s nest custody, this is not the case. Instead, the children live in one home full-time, and the parents split time between residences.
This means that establishing a bird’s nest custody arrangement requires three homes. Each parent has his or her own respective home, and then there is the children’s home in the middle (either literally, figuratively, or both). Generally, the parents will split time staying at the children’s home, although they may also choose to spend time at the children’s home together. This could be limited to holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions; or, it could be a routine aspect of their post-divorce parenting plan.