One of my close friends has parents that do something similar. His parents divorced over 10 years ago and it was messy but once they had lived apart for a few years, they started dating again. Now that all the kids are grown and gone, they each have their own place, but see each other probably 4 nights a week. It's interesting, but seems to work for them.

My wife and I kind of do something like this. I travel for my work so I am gone from Mon-Fri in different cities all over the US. Our relationship was good before I took this job, but after I took this job it got better. I think it is because we spend better time together when I am at home and I spend more quality time with her and with the kids. The only strain is that during the week she is a single parent for my 2 kids that are still at home and that sometimes can be a strain on her. But when it comes down to it you have to do what works for you and your relationship.

I think for happily married people its a very strange situation for a number of reasons, but in particular

- the costs of running two households

- the practicality of ferrying kids/animals/possessions from one place to another

- partners not being able to support each other as much

- lack of intimacy for those mundane day to day events, eg. winding down after work, cleaning, reading the paper

- sleeping over where? whom?

From my standpoint, you'd have to have some pretty strong pros to outweigh those cons.

I can actually see how nicely it could work out. I think the biggest drive to live together is money. It is hard for most people to have the income to keep 2 seperate places.

Most people do not have the same exact ideas on how to keep a house. Plus I can see the bed thing as a big win, while it is nice to cuddle, I am a solo sleeper as well, I use the entire queen bed, I also snore but so does my husband and when we sleep together someone is always complaining in the morning.

The bathroom is a whole other issue. I am scared to live in a place with one bathroom, lets just say hubby spends an extended amount of time in there and I need to use it from time to time, and nothing is worse when you wake up at 3 a.m. badly needing to pee and hubby is bathroom bound for the next 45 minutes and you are holding it in while also being crabby as all you want is to go pee and get back to sleep. I am also OCD about the bathroom, I like it clean, and orderly, I have given that up as 99.9% of the time it looks like a bomb went off.

We also differ in our laundry habits, personally I think dirty laundry needs to go into the dirty laundry basket, I am saying this while staring down a pile of dirty work uniforms and dirty socks in the corner of my living room. There are other things I am a bit OCD about, he works in healthcare and sorts his dirty scrubs all over my clean bed, this grosses me out to no end. I know I have habits that annoy him too, such as he begs me to cut my hair because I shead all over the house especially the shower drain (although I think he secertly enjoys picking the hair bunnies out of the drain.) I love my husband but if we were rich I would probably keep my own house. I don't know how it works with kids, that might be a bit odd.

I don't know if this qualifies but the thought of moving into a one bedroom apartment with a guy scares me. I'm a really independent person. I love my alone time. I always thought that I would have to get a 2 bedroom apartment just so I could the option of sleeping alone or spending time alone.