Teens and Tweens Living in 2 Places: Two Homes, Two Rooms, Two Places to Lose Your Stuff

Two teens walk on a city
sidewalk. One is carrying a
guitar and both are carrying
backpacks.

The Internet gives a lot of advice to parents about co-parenting but very little advice to children and teens about the split living that they are required to manage.

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I just learned about this type of split living last week, and I cannot stop thinking about it.

At first, I thought it was a prank. That, for the next five to 15 years, every seven days, you would pack up your homework, your athletic gear, your musical instrument, your retainer, the science project that is one jostle from implosion, your phone/laptop/smart watch and the shoe you have been missing for a month every single Tuesday or Thursday or Saturday and trek over to another house sounds exhausting.

Living in 2 Places: Keep All Your Fears in One Place

I decided to keep all my fears in the corner of the new-house garage. Where do you keep yours? 

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I moved to Florida with GymGirl and HackerBoy during the summer, while my husband T stayed in New England to wrap up his job.

Unfortunately, all my hopes about what this move would mean for our family stayed at OldHouse, while all my fears made it to NewHouse just fine.


I was wrestling with my fears early Saturday as I moved boxes around in the garage. I was looking for forks and spoons and knives (I'll share my moving organization fail later on), and the questions kept coming: What if GymGirl hates her new coach? What if HackerBoy never leaves his room? What if I see a snake? What if I see an alligator? What if living in 2 places does not work this time and everything falls apart? Finding a fork should not be this hard!