Childhood experience of poly.

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

When I was little, there was a quad who lived next door. They were very similar to us, two couples who lived in separate halves of a semi, but were romantically involved and basically lived as a family, with occasional other adult hangers on.
From the children's point of view, it seemed great. There was always an adult around and available to help with whatever they needed, always an adult who was enthusiastic about their current obsession.

I knew others like that, when I was at secondary school, and again, it always seemed good. More adults, more time, more experience.

I'm always attracted to big families, whether it's more children or more adults, maybe? Anyway, i saw the upsides more than the negatives. Now, of course, I see lack of time and a careful balancing act but the benefits still seem to out weigh the negatives.

Comments

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

Cool.

I've known of people who live together in multi-family groups, usually along the lines of a hippie commune or a Christian lay community. They've not been poly as far as I know, but maybe they just kept it quiet. I still don't (knowingly) know any poly groups who live together and have kids.

I do like the idea of a multi-family group of some kind: multiple adult influences on the kids, babysitters available on tap, ease of babysitting in return without leaving your house, friends and game/activity partners readily available for both adults and kids, and the opportunity to apply division of labour and economy of scale to the childcare, cooking, and housework.

I think what I'd most like is not a large multi-family house, but something like the semi you describe, or a street where the group occupy multiple houses in the street, so you have your own space but can walk outside and find instant social life, like in college. I believe the Westboro Baptist Church own a street like that; it ought to be possible to imitate that aspect without imitating anything else they do.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

*nod* I've known people like that too and it seems nice. There's a village out the A14 which grew out of such a Christian commune, for example.