If you would have told me just four years ago that I would be raising a child with another human being, I would have told you to stop doing whatever drug you were clearly doing. Parenthood wasn't even remotely on my radar, nor was interested in sharing the responsibility and connection you share with someone when you have a baby with them. Then, as you might have guessed, I had a baby. My partner and I aren't married, however, so I can only assume there are some things our baby wants us to know about co-parenting; things that put the tough times into perspective; things that remind us that even when co-parenting is the most annoying, it can be wonderful and so very, very worth it.
My partner and I are romantically involved, live together, and while we don't plan on ever getting married are as committed as a married couple is (or, you know, can be). Still, people seem pretty interested in how we make our "parenting situation" work, as if marriage is a required prerequisite for parenthood. Most wonder if we feel "safe and secure" in our relationship, knowing that a break up is much easier to facilitate than a divorce. Others wonder what we're "teaching our son," by living together but not getting married. We simply bypass all of those condescending questions, and simply focus on the facts: co-parenting is just as hard as any other parenting situation, married or not. Seriously, it's just not easy raising a human being with someone who isn't exactly like you, and it can — at times — become rather easy to focus on the negative instead of all the positives that come along with co-parenting.
Which, of course, is when I try to think about my son and what he's witnessing and/or what he would probably want me to know, if he could understand complex relationships or say more than a few words at a time. I'd imagine most of what he wants me to know about co-parenting involves the following, and I'd like to think your kid feels the same way about your particular parenting situation, too.