Any deviation from the model is seen as second best or underachieving. Adoption is something you do after pregnancy doesn’t work out. Being a single parent only happens when you can’t keep or find a partner. Divorce is a failure. A rental is where you live until you’ve gotten your down payment together. Unmarried couples are asked, “When are you ge
... See moreMia Birdsong • How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community
(The nuclear family structured around a male breadwinner was in fact of recent invention, arising in the 1920s and peaking in the 1950s and 1960s; before then, multigenerational families relying on multiple contributors to the family economy had been the norm.)
Kristin Kobes Du Mez • Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
"Parent or childfree" used to be my framework for understanding a dividing difference of adult life. But aging and, yes, friendship, have taught me that there are so many experiences that binary doesn't capture: To want kids but not be able to have them, for physical or financial or logistical reasons. To not want kids but accidentally get pregnant... See more
As of 2014, America ceased to have a dominant family structure (what many of us used to imagine as two parents with 2.5 kids). Diversity and fluidity have shot up, driven by cohabitation, divorce, remarriage and non-marital recoupling. In one study over a three-year period, about a third of kids who were younger than six years old had already exper
... See moreJasmine Bina • A Time to Build Tight Brands in the Chaos of Loose Cultures
Once the Millennials came along, two-income families became more acknowledged and accepted, and more childcare became available.
Jean M. Twenge • Generations
Most of us encounter steep learning curves as well as wobbly balancing acts as parents, but in recent decades, parents have been left to face those challenges with heavier career responsibilities and fewer support systems. Families with dual incomes and single-working parents are on the rise, mothers are the fastest growing segment of the workforce... See more
Greylock • Our Investment In Cleo
The dot at the centre of this symbol is the child, and the circle around it is the mother. This kinship pair is the centre of our society. That circular symbol is one of the oldest in human history and can be found etched and painted on rock all around the world. The purpose of any sustainable society is to protect and nurture this most important o
... See moreTyson Yunkaporta • Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
Natasha and Lynda’s story challenges an assumption that I hadn’t really seen questioned before: that two people have to be in love with each other to decide to raise a kid together. I think unbundling romance and parenting is liberating for a lot of people who might want to have a family but have never been presented with the option of raising a ki... See more