Now here’s a different approach…

I was talking with a guy the other day who is in the early stages of a Divorce.  There are two kids in the situation, both under about 10 years of age.  The couple is committed to doing whatever they can to protect the kids and minimize the turmoil for them.  With that in mind, they were trying to come up with something that might be less disruptive to the kids while the house is being sold and the paperwork is getting done, so here’s what they came up with.  They are renting an apartment on a 6 month lease, and for the duration of that period, each of the adults will take a week of living at the apartment while the other party stays at the house with the kids.  While that period of time is going by, they will be listing and trying to sell the primary residence. 

He and I talked about this for quite a while, as my thoughts first turned to some of the obvious questions such as “What happens when someone leaves the apartment messy and the other person wants to fight about it?”  or  “What happens if a pipe breaks in the house while Dad is living in the Apartment?  Does he come fix the pipe or does Mom call a Plumber?”  Some of these questions were addressed in an agreement that the two worked up, and of course some will just have to be dealt with then they crop up.  I’m really not sure if this is going to work well, or if will turn out to be a disaster, but I did think it was a novel approach to the problem and it may help the young kids get used to the idea of only having one parent around, while leaving the whole “we’re moving to a new house now” thing until later.  I’ll keep tabs on this couple over the next few months and will watch how this works out and keep you all posted.

Till next time,

Jon