"Boston marriage" - any experience?

Good idea. I would do this with a friend, we get on really well although she has a son who lives with her and he's a shocker. Sad.
I would suggest you have a 'free day' each week that you don't share. It will give you both a bit of space and if it's agreed beforehand it won't seem out of normal later if you do find things are not as easy as you remember.

Sounds good. If all the necessary guidelines are in place, why not?

I would do this in a heartbeat!

Sounds amazing!!!! Sign me up too! DH can go live with a friend 🤣 Hope it all works out for you 🤞🏼👏

I’ve always said this would be my dream set up!

Set boundaries and go for it! I’m jealous

I know someone who grew up in the arrangement with with two couples (one set her parents) and all the children in one big house. Must’ve worked out well as the parents are all still living there in the same house

I lived this as a child for several years. My mother and her best friend from high school moved in together when I was approximately 12-13 and her friend moved out several years later when she decided to get married (the friend was always keen to do this, the living arrangement was more necessity for her than for my mum, who mostly enjoyed the companionship/ someone always home etc). It was all very Kate and Allie.

I think the main thing you want here is space. (We were in the USA, lots of space in houses). It sounds as if you have that. If you do, and you also have similar attitudes towards cleaning/ having a cleaner, I think you're set. I'd love to do it, personally, if I found myself in the same situation.

SO many good suggestions about the parenting aspect…. I’ve been wistfully thinking of getting some mates to all club together to live together in our past mid age years.
Trouble is I don’t really like sharing kitchens and bathrooms!and one of my mates is very house proud and another really isnt! And of course our life circumstances re different so it gets very complicated.
Very good luck to you!

This sounds a brilliant idea - with the proviso that a trial period would be good. Holidays and sleepovers are one thing - living long term with someone else in a platonic relationship is quite another. Sadly, outsiders nowadays will wonder if this is a platonic relationship, so you need to discuss how you deal with this.
And to add that I had a lovely great aunt and uncle who were brother and sister - neither of whom were married - who lived together all their adult lives because it was financially sensible and they always got on well. It was a whole lot better than having separate homes and lonely lives!

Love this idea.
Go for it.
Me & my two closest friends have discussed this too. We want to live our later years as ‘the golden girls’ ( but not in Florida).
They are both single, all our kids are now adults the only obstruction is my husband - I’m wondering which one of them is going to break the news to him, he’s going to be made redundant 😂

My only reservation is if one of you does strike up a romantic relationship if the other would be jealous . It would upset your routine

Omg- this is a bit OT but that just reminded me of my (very bigoted) MIL telling me she thought lesbians give women who live together, “completely innocently” (her exact words). a bad name! I was totally gobsmacked!!
Your plan sounds fabulous to me. Just make sure you get some ground rules in place, perhaps a contact if joint finances are involved and try to work out how you’re going to resolve issues that might arise ahead of time.

My mum's two best friends (both divorced, one a single mum) did this through a chunk of my childhood. It seemed an eminently sensible and very happy arrangement to me.

OP you're very sensible and seem to have thought about this so no harm in trying. You can always split if it doesn't work out.

You won't know if you don't try and I doubt that it's going to cause long-term emotiional damage to anybody involved. worse case you and your friend can't stand each other anymore :p

No children involved as we are all adults now but my mum did this with a friend.
They were both single and lonely so aged 57 they both sold up and bought a joint house, joint car and joint holiday home.
They do lots of things separately but also lots of stuff together.
There wasn't even an issue when one of the adult children moved in for 2 years.
They are both enjoying life and have company with each other.
They also have watertight wills.
No property, or assets can be sold until they are both dead and is then split equally between the children.

@Dozer the difference with blended families is that the children have no prior knowledge of the radon’s parent select. In this case, they’ve know both adults and kids since birth. That’s v v different

Ah I see, but that's not really about childcare costs, that's because you're a contractor and presumably can't afford to take more than two weeks off work. Unless you were planning on taking maternity leave AND paying childcare costs. I can see how that wouldn't be possible on Maternity Allowance.

@A8mint

And why the stupid name-Boston Maariage, when what you are talking about is a houseshare?

Because it’s an existing idiom that describes a specific sort of houseshare.

You might as well ask ‘why Dutch treat when what you’re talking about is splitting the bill? Why French leave when you’re talking about bunking off? Why Croydon facelift when you’re talking about tying your ponytail too tight?”

It’s the way language works - not that you’re obliged to use those expressions if you don’t like them. Except the last one. As a South Londoner, I think that one should be mandatory.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_marriage

I agree that it seems a bit odd that you work in the City yet didn't take more than two weeks maternity leave, so although it doesn't have much relevance to the thread, I'm curious as to why? Everyone I know who works in the City work for firms that have very generous maternity policies, usually full pay for a significant chunk of it. If yours didn't, I'm surprised market forces haven't forced them to improve it tbh. And why not take the 6 weeks, you may as well take longer off work to avoid the astronomical childcare costs. How does going back to work after two weeks help with childcare costs? If you're getting paid 90% of your salary, surely that's better than going back to work after two weeks and paying for childcare? That post doesn't make sense.

Does anyone remember the 80's sitcom Kate and Allie, which was about this exact situation? It was one of my favourites as a kid.

I half think it's a wonderful idea but half think it has the potential to turn very ugly and ruin a great friendship.