We’ve seen so many divided homes over the years. A divorce (or two) has happened. Parents split up; sometimes moving states away from each other and others living just down the street from each other.
From a kid’s perspective, it seems like everybody gets to move on, but them. Parents marry somebody new. The parents move into different homes and establish themselves. They sleep in the same bed every night. They eat in the same kitchen every morning. Settled.
You know what is happening in the lives of the kids, though. They’re switching beds. They’re eating at different tables. Unsettled.
What if when parents divorced, the kids got to stay in the home and the parents had to switch in and out? What if the kids got to go to the same church every Sunday as before, play in the same neighborhood every day as before, got to sleep in their bed every night and eat breakfast in the kitchen that has been theirs? What if the determination was to make sure the kids are the ones who get settled and the adults who divorce have to move in and out every week or every three days?
Knowing that kind of arrangement would be ordered by the court might give some a little more pause before divorcing in the first place.
We know that this short post doesn’t deal with every issue or answer every question. We’re just wondering what could happen to keep kids in their place and let the parents be resilient.
Richard and JeannaLynn
Others have written about this.
There has been a movie about the idea called Who Gets the House?