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Interesting read. I think this idea underestimated the challenges posed by having more adults in a family unit, especially when major decisions are made. Life e

Interesting read. I think this idea underestimated the challenges posed by having more adults in a family unit, especially when major decisions are made. Life events like moving to a new city, finding new employment, etc can be very difficult even for two people. Add in a few more and it seems that every major decision is being made by a committee—I imagine this could be very frustrating and problematic. Jim + Sally create a family clan with Dan + Steve. Amongst them there are 5 children. Dan loses his job and the finances get tight. Steve is supportive of Dan taking a new job, but it is a two hr commute each way. That means that his duties taking the kids to school on tues and thurs will have to be shifted to Sally or Jim (Steve can’t drive due to a vision issue). Both Jim and Sally are already working long days and would prefer for Dan to just keep looking for another job closer to home. Many meetings and many arguments ensue. In this way, a PMFC just seems to create more entanglement between adults who would otherwise be free to make independent decisions.

iguy 8y ago
Looking on the bright side, just imagine how many divorce lawyers could be saved from unemployment!
sovietmudkipz 8y ago
Entertainment instantiation of the multi-parent idea... Have you ever watched Futureman (M rated comedy)? In season 2 in a post apocalyptic world family units are composed of 5 parents. Each parent has a role to play. Your proposal made me think of that family setup. How would a multi parent family unit deal with personal relationships? In the show, every parent was “married” to each other and they collectively engaged intercourse as a group. In reality I bet people would have favorites and that would collapse the parental dynamic.
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  It would seem that throughout history and across the world, societies with at least a pretense of long term monogamous relationships have survived longer than polyamorous ones.
- hanklazard 8y ago
  Never seen it, but I'll check it out!
chobeat 8y ago
You still think about a family as if it's a community of individuals. You participate in a community when you have a personal interest that overlaps with the collective interest of the community and you're out once these interests diverge. A family is a tribe. The support is mutual and unconditional. It's postmodern because to embrace this sense of belonging you need to renounce part of your individuality and indipendence, values that are deemed sacred by modern society.
arkades 8y ago
It also underestimates the difficulty of finding such pairings to begin with. Most people seem to have trouble finding a 1:1 pairing that is long-term stable and desirable. Four adults, as depicted in this story, would presumably require at least twelve long-term stable pairings. That's ... incredibly unlikely. Not impossible, but hardly something I'd expect to become a widespread social trend. There's a reason this traditionally happens in situations of consanginuity: there are strong per-existing bonds that are considered non-negotiable due to existing social structures.

iguy 8y ago

Looking on the bright side, just imagine how many divorce lawyers could be saved from unemployment!

sovietmudkipz 8y ago

Entertainment instantiation of the multi-parent idea... Have you ever watched Futureman (M rated comedy)? In season 2 in a post apocalyptic world family units are composed of 5 parents. Each parent has a role to play. Your proposal made me think of that family setup. How would a multi parent family unit deal with personal relationships? In the show, every parent was “married” to each other and they collectively engaged intercourse as a group. In reality I bet people would have favorites and that would collapse the parental dynamic.

lotsofpulp 8y ago
It would seem that throughout history and across the world, societies with at least a pretense of long term monogamous relationships have survived longer than polyamorous ones.
hanklazard 8y ago
Never seen it, but I'll check it out!

chobeat 8y ago

You still think about a family as if it's a community of individuals. You participate in a community when you have a personal interest that overlaps with the collective interest of the community and you're out once these interests diverge. A family is a tribe. The support is mutual and unconditional. It's postmodern because to embrace this sense of belonging you need to renounce part of your individuality and indipendence, values that are deemed sacred by modern society.

arkades 8y ago

It also underestimates the difficulty of finding such pairings to begin with. Most people seem to have trouble finding a 1:1 pairing that is long-term stable and desirable. Four adults, as depicted in this story, would presumably require at least twelve long-term stable pairings. That's ... incredibly unlikely. Not impossible, but hardly something I'd expect to become a widespread social trend. There's a reason this traditionally happens in situations of consanginuity: there are strong per-existing bonds that are considered non-negotiable due to existing social structures.