Anyone else done this?

[MurderOfGoths]

Separated from DH but remained living together for the DC?

it's really does not have to be complicated.

Think of all your acquaintances who are married. You have no idea what their relationships are really like, for the most part.

It's perfectly possible some of them have arrangements like the ones described

why on earth would children get ridiculed about how their parents live?

Unless the other kids are peering into the bedrooms of their schoolfriends' parents. Which is unlikely.

No one has a clue what goes on behind closed doors of most other families, and why should they?

The couples I know do it so both parents are around the children all the time.
Good idea I say.

The one couple I know who did it for a while, did it for financial reasons. However, their son was very unhappy and unsettled during this time. Things only improved when the mother and the children relocated. I don't think it was good for the kids.

I was ridiculed at school for my parents sleeping in separate bedrooms. For me it was normal. Married and happy (most of the time) but had separate bed rooms as my Dad snores something awful, so the only way for both to sleep is have separate rooms. Only time they sleep in same bed is on holiday.

I remember being 7 years old and having a conversation at school with friends and it came up about parents and "does your dad snore? Mine does, I can hear him through the wall!", one of my friends asked me. So I told them that yes he does, but my parents have separate rooms. My peers all thought that was weird and 'not normal', so I was ridiculed.

My parents still have separate rooms now, even though I moved out 11 years ago, but they are happily married and semi_retired. I think they are just used to it.