In the summer of 2024, Megan Meyer and her ex-husband, Tyler, were stressed.
It had been an eventful year for the former spouses. They split in September 2023 after three years of marriage and had to figure out how to co-parent their daughter.
A few months after the separation, Meyer reconnected with her high school sweetheart, Michael Flores. Soon, they were expecting a son together.
Meyer, 25, Flores, 26, and Tyler, 25, whose last name was omitted to protect his and Meyer’s daughter’s privacy, all agreed to settle in South Carolina to raise their children. Meyer, a stay-at-home mom and content creator, has family in the state, and Tyler found work as a police officer. Meanwhile, Flores works in the tree industry.
When they moved to South Carolina, Tyler lived about 30 minutes away from Flores and Meyer, who eventually wed in June 2024. He saw his daughter often, but the financial and emotional realities of the move were weighing on all three parents.
As they adjusted to their new life, Meyer thought of a way to solve their problems: she, her husband, and her ex-husband would live under one roof.
Three isn’t a crowd
The financial strain of moving and the cost of living in a new area led Meyer to consider alternative housing situations for her family.
“Every time my ex and I would exchange our daughter, we would just constantly be complaining like, ‘Oh, it’s so expensive,'” Meyer told Business Insider, pointing to day-to-day costs like gas and rent.
Meyer’s son was due at the end of the summer in 2024, and she knew life would only get more expensive when he arrived. Meanwhile, Meyer’s daughter was struggling with her parents’ separation.
“The transition was really hard on our daughter,” she said. “She had just turned 2, and the back and forth was just so hard for her.”
As she thought more about their situation — and saw that Flores and Tyler were getting along surprisingly well — Meyer decided to approach Tyler about merging their households.
“I finally was just like, ‘What if we all got a place together?'” Meyer said. She was worried that the thought of living with her and her new husband might upset Tyler, but to her surprise, he was thinking the same thing.
“He was like, ‘You know what, I wanted to mention something about this last week, but I was scared that you would get mad,'” Meyer told BI.
By July 2024, the three had signed a lease on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house, which BI was able to review. Nearly a year later, Meyer said living with her ex and her husband has been the best thing for her family.
Living under one roof
Meyer had some initial anxiety about sharing a home with her ex when they first moved back in together.
“I was 8 months pregnant at the time, so I was like, ‘Am I going to be emotionally stable enough for this?'” she told BI. “But it actually ended up being so much easier than I had ever imagined.”
Tyler works a two-days-on, two-days-off schedule, and when he isn’t working, the three function like one family unit. Meyer said it’s “pretty laid back,” and they now “coexist as one big family.”
“On the days that he’s off, we’ll all usually eat meals together, and then we’ll either all go to the pool together or go on walks together,” Meyer said. “Sometimes, my ex will just take my daughter somewhere, and my husband and I will have some time to hang out at the house.”
Tyler’s schedule also ensures Meyer still gets one-on-one time with her new husband, who was a huge source of comfort for her through the transition.
“My husband is just like my safe space, so even if my ex did something that ticked me off, my husband would cool me down,” she said.
It also helps that Flores and Tyler have developed a close relationship.
The pair are unlikely friends, as Meyer documents on their shared TikTok account, jokingly called “notbrotherhusbands.” Still, Tyler does refer to Flores as his brother, as seen in one video.
Co-parenting as a trio
When it comes to raising their kids, all three parents are hands-on with both children. Tyler doesn’t parent Flores and Meyer’s son, but he has babysat him several times.
Meyer said her daughter is thriving now that she’s living with both parents, and having her two children living together has also been a big benefit.
“I love seeing our daughter become a big sister, and having her around all the time has been great for my son,” Meyer said. “He’s starting to play and engage with her more, and it’s been really great just seeing that bond.”
Meyer said the living situation works so well for her, Tyler, and Flores because they all did substantial “personal growth” before moving into the same house.
“There was a lot of work that was put into mending our co-parent relationship, healing ourselves of the reasons that we had split in the first place,” Meyer said, adding that they addressed any “resentment” and “bitterness” before the move.
The three of them hope to continue living on the same property until their daughter is an adult. They plan to stay in their rental home for another year and are saving money to buy a house with land in 2026.
They plan to eventually have a family compound, and they envision Tyler living in a tiny home while they build him a full, separate house.
“If Tyler were to get a tiny home on the property, our daughter probably wouldn’t have a room there, so he could come and go from the ‘main house’ as often as he wanted,” Meyer said.
“A family compound is the goal,” she added.
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