Chatty, When I give it some thought, I am able to believe you are getting comfortable with having your "X" around.

I thought of my "X" and I remembered that when we were deciding whether or not to get divorced, we went to see a counselor, who advised us that we should separate for two weeks to see what it would be like to live alone.

This was a rather silly exercise for us, since Bill had a job that caused him to be out of the state, often even out of the country, for two weeks to a month at a time. During those times, he wouldn't call me, as he didn't want to pay the long distance charges (s he said) for which his employer would not reimburse him.

So essentially, we already KNEW what it was like to be alone. My kids had already told me that they felt they were living in a single parent family during these times.

Anyway, I digress: We felt we didn't have the money to pay to have one of us move out for such a short time, so we decided to "pretend" that we were separated, by both living in the house -- but not speaking to each other, eating together or otherwise interacting.

It was pretty silly, because I recall one morning when I was feeding the kids breakfast while Bill came downstairs to go to work. He said good bye to the kids, hugged them and kissed them, then headed to the door.

Since we hadn't explained this arrangement to the kids, my daughter called him back as he went out the door: "Daddy, you forgot to kiss mommy goodbye."

In the interest of not causing a scene, he came back and kissed me...

ANYWAY, we found that we got along quite well co-habiting in the house under these circumstances.

I don't know why. But at the end of the two weeks we actually discussed whether or not we should get back together. (We did not.)

I am sure the fact that we didn't hate each other, and we respected each other allowed our co-parenting to work out as well as it did during our time of divorce, and after I remarried five years later.

I think it is a good idea NOT to live alone, especially as we age. so I am glad having your X live with you is working for you right now, Chatty.