Children in shared physical custody: creating stability in a world-in-motion

Based on in-depth fieldwork, funded by an ERC Starting Grant project, with 21 children aged 10-16 living in (quasi-)egalitarian shared custody arrangements in Belgium, this paper explores how children create stability in their mobile lives. This issue is particularly important as stability is often considered an important prerequisite for the identity construction of children (Merla et al., 2021). SPC is approached here as a form of multilocal residency where children navigate within an archipelago (Duchêne-Lacroix, 2014) composed of two islands (their two parental dwellings) with specific characteristics and particular – and sometimes contradictory – local cultures (Winther, 2015). The paper starts by presenting a typology of the limits that each parent draws with their ex-partner’s “island”, and which constitute the background against which young people must deal in their daily lives. It then shows how children anchor themselves in their two living places and create stability in movement, notably through managing personal belongings that they take with them or, on the contrary, choose to leave in each place. The paper concludes by highlighting the key factors that shape those practices.