First comes love, then comes marriage, and then comes an array of strange divorce-related options including but not limited to living in the same house with your ex, your (former) husband and father of your children cooking with a microwave and sleeping on an air mattress in the basement.

Nothing to see here, move on. Except when it comes to potential new suitors:

Both have resumed dating and have even given each other advice on how to get back into the singles world. Ms. Brewster took the photograph of her husband that he put on match.com, the online dating Web site. On some Saturday nights, she says, they hire a baby sitter so they can both go out, and they share their plans so they won’t run into each other. Their living situation has scared away some potential suitors. “It freaks a lot of them out,” says Ms. Brewster. “I tell them upfront: Here’s my situation. Eventually I will move on, but I’m not going to do something to mess myself up financially.”

Um, ya. So your ex-wife and kids just live right upstairs? No, no, that’s great. So pleased you were able to work that out. Oh, she cooks for you from time to time too? And I could potentially have the honour of joining into this happy, modern fray?

What’s to be scared of there?