What is co-parenting

What is co-parenting?

Co-parenting is defined as the shared rights and responsibilities of parenting.

A child has the right to maintain a normal relationship with his or her parents even if they are divorced, separated, or they just wanted to have a child together so that they could both be parents. Just because two people haven’t met “the one” or want to remain single, doesn’t mean that they should miss out on having a child.

Both parents are committed to having and raising their child with all of the love, respect, and care that comes with traditional parents. With this, the co-parents share parental rights.

Our world is changing and situations such as divorce and lifestyles (single women or men wishing to remain unmarried or same-sex couples) are changing, too. Co-parenting is becoming more and more common.

In fact, men and women increasingly want to co-parent with a co-mom or co-dad.

 

So why do they choose this lifestyle? What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages?

Maybe your love life didn’t turn out exactly as you had planned. Maybe your relationships haven’t worked out. You still want a family but don’t want to be bothered with having a significant other.

Maybe you haven’t found the love of your life but are getting closer to the age when you will be unable to have children (the unfortunate reality of the biological clock), or you simply want to remain single because that’s the lifestyle that suits you best (having time for yourself, for friends and family, for your career, etc.)

Or maybe you’re a homosexual couple seeking to have a child but still want to provide a mother-figure for your child. Therefore, with co-parenting, you could have a family with two moms and two dads, or two dads and one mom, etc.

You may also be a couple wishing to have a child (one partner is infertile). However, this situation is more rare because the infertile spouse often cannot find his or her place in the family.

In short, there are many different options of co-parenting, and young people are choosing this family dynamic more and more often.

 

So what are the benefits of co-parenting?

Being a co-parent often implies that you are single, and therefore you have about 50% (depending on what you have agreed upon) of your time for yourself.

 

So you can spend time with your friends, focus on your career, enjoy your free time and your freedom. On top of that, you can also have a child, give him or her all of your love and truly enjoy all the special moments. You can also form a special relationship with the co-parent of your child.

Complicity and a friend for life :). Clearly there are a lot of advantages that come with the love and freedom of being a co-parent.

But of course there are also disadvantages.

So what are the disadvantages of co-parenting?

 

The desire to have a child with a stranger (usually) or a friend means that you must have a clear vision of the future with the co-parent. You should agree on the amount of time each of you would spend with the child, share common values and ideas about education, etc. in order to be as close as possible to your co-parent. Be aware that a bad decision could turn into a nightmare later

To read more about this topic, you can read our article on successful co-parenting.

In conclusion, although co-parenting has many advantages, there can also be many problems if you do not choose a compatible co-parent.

Nonetheless, life is a beautiful adventure, so don’t miss the opportunity to become a parent if that is your dream.