The question has been posed to me a number of times: How do you explain being non-monogamous to a teenager or an 8-year-old?
And because I don’t have kids, I can’t definitively respond to that question.
But I also don’t really see why so many people are confused about it.
Besides time constraints (which is a totally valid reason to put practicing non-monogamy on pause), I don’t see any specific reason that you couldn’t be non-monogamous with kids. Or any specific reason why you would’’t be able to “explain it to them…”
Sex positivity
If you understand that sexuality and romance are beautiful things even when they are between more than two people, then fundamentally there is nothing wrong with practicing it while kids are around. As long as you believe this and can explain it to them, then what’s the problem?
Of course, there are many considerations to think about with kids, but not anything different than a divorced mom or dad would think about when dating someone new (for example, not introducing new dates to children until they are going to be stable fixtures in their lives).
But as I said, don’t take it from me.
I interviewed several incredible people for the alternative relationship summit who are non-monogamous with children and they talk in detail about how parenting non-monogamous works for them. Talking to them has made me feel 100% confident babies and non-monogamy don’t contradict each other.
Save your free seat for the summit here
Did I mention it’s free?
Baby tour 2021
And I’m thinking about this question lately a lot because in the past three years, a very large portion of my US-based friends have either had their first kid(s) or become pregnant, so it’s been on my mind.
As such, I’ve been calling this trip to New York, Baby Tour 2021. Wooo!!
This baby’s parents are non-monogamous and she seems pretty okay to me :)
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