Expensive watches & ethics

[stui magpie]

[HAL]

How does she look?

[stui magpie]

[Tannin]

[Wokko]

[Morrigu]

[David]

[think positive]

[Wokko]

[David]

^ I don't think they're intending to have children, but I'm sure they'd make fantastic parents�they're an extraordinarily loving couple and their time management skills are quite impressive. I would have had a much better and healthier childhood with parents like them. With respect, you have no idea what you're talking about.

The nuclear family isn't the only model within which children can thrive. We need to remember that it's a relatively recent invention�communal child-rearing was the norm throughout much of human history. As for the anti-gay marriage crowd, they need to get their heads out of their arses because the conservative '50s view of marriage has been breaking down for a long time and it has nothing to do with the 'gay agenda'. Growing interest in polyamory is symptomatic of that breakdown, and by 'symptomatic' I actually mean that it's one of the good things that has emerged from it.

On the other hand, people who want to preserve the more conservative notion of marriage as an important cultural institution would do well to get on the same-sex marriage bandwagon ASAP. If it doesn't modernise, it will die.

[Tannin]

There is no need to be narrow-minded. Rejecting some sorts of families because they are not the same sort that you grew up in is retarded thinking. Well, no it's not. Actually it isn't thinking at all.

[Wokko]

[David]

Well, for me it's like home-schooling (and I'm speaking from personal experience here): there's no singular form, and the possible models range from excellent to woeful. Relationships and families are the same. What's needed is to think outside the square and consider what is in the best interests of both the children and the parents (because, of course, happy parents generally make good parents). If that's a sociological experiment, then so are all families�you can never really know if your partner is going to be a good parent or whether a conventional familial/educational model is going to work for your children.

As for lovers coming and going, once again, it very much depends on what we're talking about. If one or both of the parents has another serious long-term partner, then it's not that dissimilar to having close friends come over (and as for multiple-partner relationships, I tend to take the view of "many hands make light work"). If there is more of a range of short and long-term partners (the "conga line" you speak of) then that brings its own benefits, drawbacks, analogies and things that simply don't matter much to anything. I don't know if you can generalise; as for the oft-quoted statistics about non-conventional relationships (and we all know why they're oft-quoted), they're quite misleading because they're mostly based on single-parent and step-parent families that, by their very definition, have already encountered some form of dysfunction or tragedy. Dysfunction breeds dysfunction: that's not news. But polyamorous relationships and other alternative arrangements aren't necessarily dysfunctional�indeed, I'd argue that people who do it for the right reasons are probably going to do better in the long run than the average monogamous couple.

[HAL]

If there ever is, I will let you know.

[think positive]

What's the right reason? Surely it's just an excuse to sleep around? Yeah let's set. Ore good examples for the kids! Don't work on a relationship , just find a new one! Oh wait, there is no such thing as role models.

I can't wait til you have teenagers making choices you don't like!