Sociology students are well aware of the increasing diversity of family forms. This article considers one such example: platonic (non-sexual) co-parenting.In the Western world, most close relationships are formed on the basis of romantic love and sexual attraction. But what if you wanted to be a parent and decided against choosing the father or mother of your child on this basis? What if you made the decision based on other desirable characteristics that would make that person a ‘good’ parent? If you had no desire to enter into a sexual relationship, or if you were already in a same-sex relationship, how and where might you go about finding such a person? The answer increasingly seems to lie in what is termed ‘co-parenting’.
Many aspects of modern life do not lend themselves easily to meeting people and forming a relationship. Working long hours, commuting long distances and spending a fair amount of time online all reduce the time people have for going out and socialising. Some heterosexuals, as they approach middle age, realise that their chances of having a child are diminishing. Some have accepted that, rather than waiting for the ‘right’ person to come along and enter into a loving sexual relationship, it would be better to try to find a suitable person to be the father or mother of their child without the sexual or cohabiting aspect of other types of relationship. Some gay men and women, either single or in a relationship, take a similar approach.
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