Dear Prudence,
My sister and I were born just 15 months apart. We get along swimmingly—so well, in fact, that we’ve lived in the same apartment building for years and see each other nearly every day. We exchange babysitting duties and are supportive of each other, practically and emotionally. We live in a really expensive area and buying a house is out of reach unless we move far away from our jobs, our parents (who help care for our children), and the kids’ schools. We are considering buying a house together, with our husbands. It was actually my husband’s idea and my sister’s husband is equally enthusiastic. My husband has found a big house with enough bedrooms, a yard for the kids, and it has two living rooms, so we could each have our own space. We have fantasies of sharing child care and cooking and hanging out after the kids go to bed. Are we nuts? Nearly everyone else seems to think so. I know there are lots of things to think about: Who pays for what, who does chores, how much we can parent one another’s children, what happens when someone wants to move (or, heaven forbid, dies or divorces). But I think the good outweighs the bad. What do you think?
—Two Families, One Mortgage