The dating scene has evolved to allow people find their potential partners online. But beyond just romantic partners, you can also find a co-parent for your future child.
According to the Wall Street Journal, co-parenting sites, such as Modamily and PollenTree, offer matching services where users can find potential parental partners to raise a child with. Users are encouraged to vet and become extensively acquainted with one another to find a partner (or more than one) who is equally committed to raising a child without necessarily the expectation of romantic love or sex. The co-parenting trend and the nascent industry around it is largely made up of professionals who thought they might be ready for children by their early 30’s, but kept pushing that plan back, says Modamily founder Ivan Fatovic. LGBTQ and straight adults approaching 40 years old who still want to be parents, but need a hand with child rearing and don’t want to risk putting a child through divorce, are turning to this idea to start families, Fatovic says.
Would you consider having and raising a child with a non-romantic partner? Are you already in an arrangement like this? Did you come to the idea from trending ideas in western parenting, or non-anglo traditions like comadres? And how does this question bear out for single parents of existing children? Join the conversation by calling in at 866-893-5722.
Guests:
Julie Jargon, family and tech columnist for the Wall Street Journal who wrote about the phenomenon of “platonic co-parenting”; she tweets at
Rachel Hope, author of “Family by Choice: Platonic Partnered Parenting” (World Birth Publishing, 2014); she has two children from two different parenting partnerships