One of the goals of a parenting plan is to minimize the interruption that your divorce will cause to your child’s life. It may be easier to accomplish this goal by using a strategy known as “nesting”. In such a scenario, your child would remain in the family’s Florida home while you and your child’s other parent take turns living there.
The potential benefits of nesting
A primary benefit of nesting is that your child doesn’t have to split time between two households. This means there is no need to spend valuable time each weekend traveling to the noncustodial parent’s house or spending school breaks away from friends or family members. It also means that your child can remain in the same school district and remain involved in clubs and other activities. If the house is to be sold pursuant to a court order, nesting provides the adults an opportunity to ensure that the property is maintained until the sale can take place.
Nesting is often a temporary solution
Nesting may be an ideal child custody solution if your divorce takes place during the school year as you can delay any permanent plan until the summer months. This may be especially true if your child is a senior in high school and wants to graduate with their friends and other important people in their lives.
You may also decide to engage in nesting until you find a place that is suitable for your child to live in after the family home is sold. Nesting tends to be a temporary situation because it can be prohibitively expensive to rent an apartment while paying a mortgage or other costs associated with a primary residence.
There are many factors that a judge will likely take into account when determining if a parenting plan meets the best interest of the child standard. Those factors may include the mental health of the child as well as whether it provides for the child’s basic needs such as adequate clothing, food and shelter.
