Nesting After Divorce: Co-Parenting in the Family Home

In the spirit of Conscious Uncoupling comes a guide for a child-centered approach to parenting after divorce—known as nesting—that will change what it looks like to move forward as a family after a marriage ends. Research suggests when a couple separates, children suffer the most, as they’re typically shuttled back and forth between two different homes. When Beth Behrendt and her husband divorced, she found a better way: She gave her children custody of the home, while she and her husband moved around. After successfully implementing more than six years of what’s known as “nesting,” Behrendt has created a step-by-step guide for divorcing parents to introduce the practice in their own families. In Nesting After Divorce, Behrendt provides a coparenting program that can start when an unhappily married couple considers the pros and cons of a nesting divorce. She offers advice on deciding whether nesting is the right choice for a family and communicating the concept to a spouse, children, friends, and family. She outlines the steps for assembling a nesting “team” of legal, financial, and mental health professionals and even shows how, surprisingly, nesting is often a more affordable approach to divorce than the traditional two-home model.Behrendt’s divorce book expands upon her viral 2017 New York Times essay “After Divorce, Giving Our Kids Custody of the Home,” and is the perfect guide for anyone seeking a healthy, amicable divorce for their family.