Divorce is a messy business. No matter how amicable relations between partners, children are invariably shuffled around from one home to another. But one couple has found a novel solution to the complexities of custody sharing. They call it the transporter.
According to an article in The Province, a former husband and wife team took it upon themselves to create a duplex connected by shared, neutral territory, i.e., the hallway.
Of course Monica McGrath and Kent Kirkland are not your average couple. She is a business manager, and he the owner of a home building company. Frustrated by the logistical nightmare of ferrying their kids between two homes, McGrath designed the transporter, while Kirkland brought her idea to life.
The unconventional Edmonton home has a shared front veranda and two separate entrances, and a communal hall locked off by fire doors. Depending whose 'week' it is to look after the kids, the adjoining door remains locked. If a child wants to get in touch with the other parent, they have to knock on the front door or use the phone. And if there is an emergency, help is never far away.
Sound like a beautiful concept? Well, it is, superficially at least. Not too many divorcees would conceivably be OK with living next door to their ex. Try not to be a peeping Tom when your ex has overnight company, for instance (not to mention how prospective new partners would feel about the arrangement...)
In some cases, physical distance helps dissolve a bad relationship in a healthy way. Partners can move on with their lives, without the risk of facing their former spouse during their comings and goings every day.
I repeat: this is not your typical couple. For a start, though they don't actually hang out without the kids, they are actually friends in the real sense of the word; what's more—they still occasionally holiday together as a family.
“It was a lot of work to get here,” says McGrath. “There were hard feelings. But now I think we look out for each other. I don’t think we feel like single parents.”
It may not be every divorcee's cup of tea, but for couples willing to put the kids first and their pasts last, the transporter may just be the home of the future.
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