13 hours ago
EXCLUSIVE Mom who shares home with her ex so they can co-parent lifts lid on their VERY unique living situation
A mom who shares an apartment with her ex while they take turns parenting their kids at the family home has lifted a lid on the realities of their very unique living situation.
Lauren Palmigiano, 46, from Los Angeles, California, was with her partner for 20 years - and married for 12 of those - before they decided they were 'better off as friends.'
Over the course of their marriage, they welcomed two sons together, now age 15 and 12, and when they split in 2021, they didn't want their boys to have to uproot their lives.
So instead of making the children split their time between two homes - they decided it was best for the boys to stay in one place while the former couple shuttled back and forth.
Lauren and her ex wife opted to purchase a second home together, and they've now worked out a system where they alternate between living there and the family home.
One of them stays in their new studio apartment while the other takes care of the kids at the main house, and they switch halfway through the week.
Sharing a space with your ex after going through a divorce certainly comes with its challenges - but Lauren recently broke down why, despite the problems, it's been totally worth it for them exclusively with Daily Mail.
She explained that sharing two homes rather than each of them having their own has helped them immensely with 'finances.'
'It's also less traumatic for the boys,' she added. 'The kids are living seamlessly and they don't have to adjust to different homes.
'I think they love having their consistent space and barely notice the ins and outs of their moms.'
As for the downsides, Lauren explained that both of their schedules are pretty 'inconsistent,' which means it takes a lot of 'planning' to figure out who will be at which home each week.
'It [also] takes a lot of communication, patience and cooperation,' she continued.
'I don't recommend this for couples who do not get along. We don't have a lot of tension in our relationship so it works really well for us.'
In addition, she said 'managing groceries' for their two homes is one of the hardest parts.
She explained, 'It's hard to know what food needs are at each house after you're gone for a few days.'
But in the end, she said the benefits have outweighed the hard parts.
Lauren isn't the only one to try out this method after a breakup. In fact, it's a co-parenting arrangement known as 'nesting' that's become quite popular in recent years.
Back in 2023, mom-of-three Beth Behrendt, 56, Fort Wayne, Indiana, spoke to the Daily Mail about why she and her ex-husband, Bill, decided to try 'nesting' after they split.
She said she came across the co-parenting method in celebrity divorce attorney Laura Wasser's book, and right away, it seemed like a perfect fit for them.
'As soon as I read it, it was just like a lightbulb went on. Like wow, I hadn't even thought of that, that's a great idea,' she remembered.
'Baby birds stay in the nest and the parent birds fly in and out to take care of them. It's a similar concept but for humans. The kids stay in one home and the parents come in and out to take care of them.'
Similarly to Lauren, Beth said the system meant that her kids never went through the trauma of a messy split.
She told the Daily Mail: 'I'm a big fan of therapy so the first couple of years after the divorce, I had them seeing a therapist and after a year or so she said, "I just want you to know that your kids are the only kids of divorce that I've ever seen who never mentioned the divorce."'
According to the mother-of-three, she and Bill made sure that they were never at the apartment or house at the same time.
They also both worked hard to keep the space clean and respect each other's 'boundaries.'
'We were really careful about not overlapping at all because the emotions were really high around the divorce happening,' she explained.
'But it was challenging because even though we weren't in the same place at the same time, you still know the other person had been there.'
'You don't want to come into a dirty place. We really tried to be respectful of the space and not leave anything behind but naturally you know someone else is living there and you wonder what they've been doing.'
She also said they had 'strict rules' when it came to communicating about their relationship.
They vowed never to discuss anything pertaining to the divorce in either home, but instead, would meet in a public setting to talk about it.
Issuing advice for others who might want to try it for themselves, Beth said you have to remember to 'live your own life' despite sharing your living space with your ex.
When it came time for them to start dating again, she said the key to avoiding 'jealousy' was being very open about the situation with potential new partners from the get-go.
'I would bring it up in practically the first conversation, or definitely during the first meeting that I had with someone because I felt like, while it was a complicated thing it was also something really important to me – so if this person had a problem with it, I kind of wanted to know right away,' she said.
'I needed to be clear that it wasn't about getting back together with my ex – we were divorced – it was just something we were doing for our kids.
'You have to be willing to talk about it with strangers, but I feel that most people were really supportive.
'I know from other nesters there's been some issues with jealousy or confusion, but I think if you're upfront about it and show the person that you're dating that you're dating them and it's not about what's going on with your ex, [it'll be fine].'
