The question posed above is a tough one, isn’t it? If you are a parent confronting the issues of divorce, it can be easy to be torn. For your sake, divorce might be necessary. But as a loving parent, you don’t want your child to suffer. You want to act in your child’s best interest, and as we noted in a previous post, the court in Connecticut will try to do the same.
While the process of divorce can be difficult for the adults, the disagreements it can create around what happens to the children are often the greatest challenges to overcome. Joint legal custody is the most typical form used in Connecticut. What shape that takes when it comes to the actual parenting plan, when questions of who has the children when, can be something that calls for creativity.
Finding what works best to protect the interests of all concerned, parents and children, can be sussed out and crafted into a workable plan much more easily with the help of an experienced attorney.
There is one model of co-parenting that has come on the scene in recent years. It’s called bird’s nest parenting. As you might guess from the name, it involves turning the usual custody model on its head. Instead of the children being moved from one parent’s home to the others on a set schedule, the children stay in the family home. The adults are the ones who rotate, coming home to roost at specified times.
What makes this model appealing from the perspective of child development experts is that it puts the children at the center of things. Their lives are the least disrupted and that is seen as the best way to serve their best interests.
The experts warn that bird nesting isn’t for everyone. Not every couple might have the money to sustain three homes, which likely will be needed in such an arrangement. It also takes a particular depth of commitment and trust between the adults – something not every couple can muster.
One last thing to consider is that the bird-nesting model is so new. Courts might not be quite ready to accept it as an option. Here again, a skilled attorney can help assess whether the arrangement might fly.