Nesting Agreements Are a Beneficial Option for Children

Video Transcribed: You want joint custody but you do not want to uproot your kids from household to household during the pendency of your divorce? Well, there may be a solution for you, and we’re going to talk about that today. My name is Brian L. Jackson. I am an attorney for father’s rights with Dads.Law and we’re going to talk about something called a nesting agreement today.

What is a nesting agreement in Oklahoma? Well, essentially what this is is it’s a type of agreement and usually it’s entered as a court order, but it’s something that would be agreed to by the parties where the parties agree that the children will continue to live at the marital home, wherever that might be, and the parents will take turns occupying the marital home with the children rather than shuffling the children from mom’s house to dad’s house to mom’s house to dad’s house.

In the short term, it can be a really good option for avoiding a lot of disruption in the children’s lives, and in a situation where the parents get along pretty well and are willing to work towards the benefit of their children, it’s not a bad arrangement. Divorce is really scary, upsetting, hurtful, and disruptive to the children already, and shuffling them all over creation is not going to make it any easier on them.

So the nesting agreement in some circumstances is appropriate, especially if both parents live nearby and it’s going to be a minor inconvenience to them, but at least they can have some stability for their kids.

I’ve also seen judges suggest in situations where you have one party who has housing in the in-state and the other does not and that could be a solution to that problem as well, while still allowing the custody of the parents to share joint custody. As I’ve said in the past, it is our belief here at Dads.Law, we think in cases where both parents are fit and capable, the children deserve to have both parents in their lives.

So these nesting agreements, although they’re inconvenient as hell to the parents and they are, it’s a beneficial option for children. If you’re able to suck it up in the short-term and deal with the nesting arrangement it can help your children now in adjusting to the new reality of life, post-divorce.

I wouldn’t recommend doing this as an ultimate long-term solution for the obvious reason that it’s just a lot of instability for you, but it is a short-term getting through the divorce stop-gap measure. This is not a bad bad move and it’s something to think about if you are able to work with your ex on a business level.

A couple of quick things I want to talk about on these and then, and then I think that pretty much covers the waterfront, but obviously, it goes without saying that if you’re dating, don’t bring your SO into the marital home for a nesting agreement.

Even if the court doesn’t specifically prohibit that, you’re asking for trouble, I’m just telling you right now, you are. Now she does that, that’s something you probably want to bring to the court’s attention and you may as part of a nesting agreement also want to enter something called a judicial order of parental conduct that would specifically lay out the rules associated with when you’re around the kids in occupying the marital home. But even if it’s not particularly proscribed, you shouldn’t do it and I would advise against it because it’s just going to cause problems.

Also, if she leaves her property, like any of her personal LT in the house, don’t mess with it, like computers, phones, devices, things like that. Don’t mess with it. Just don’t, it’s just going to cause a problem. So if you have questions about a nesting agreement, you want to do a nesting agreement you should go to Dad.Law.