Can Shuttle Couplehood Build Bonds?

Burned out from living together as man and wife or as significant others? Try a time-share relationship.

Call it shuttle couplehood, commuter marriage or “I-just-need-some-space,” but partners who are apart for roughly 50 percent of their time - living separately across the country, different apartments across town or in different bedrooms - not only recharge themselves through their independent lives but also “tend to return to the courtship behavior that strengthens their sexual magnetism,” according to Bryan Brook, Ph.D., a Denver-based therapist and author of “Design Your Love Life: Intimacy with Independence, Commitment without Confinement.

“The time-share idea can work for anyone. The time away enhances a relationship and makes the sexual tension higher. It also makes it less likely that the partners will take each other for granted,” Brook says.

For those considering a timeshare relationship, Brook offers these tips:

Monogamy is still paramount.

Trust and maturity are essential.

Stay in touch and use the time away as the impetus to take better care of your partner when you are together.