There's a Site for People Who Want a Co-Parent, Not a Lover

In a modern world full of variations on parenting, the social network Modamily introduced a less-than-traditional way to co-parent: The site allows couples to meet with the sole intention of finding someone with whom to have and raise a child, but out of two households and without the intention of becoming romantically involved. In its coverage of the then-new site in 2012, The Stir described it as "basically a cross between a sperm bank and an online dating service," and quipped that it "has disaster written all over it." But some five years post-launch, the CBC looks at a set of parents who found success with the site.

Tatijana Busic, a straight woman, and Brendan Schulz, a gay man, met through the US-based service in Toronto in 2014. They say they "knew right away" that having a child together was going to work, and after artificial insemination at home, Busic got pregnant and had their son. (The site notes users can go to a fertility clinic or rely on at-home insemination using an artificial insemination kit.) Without an attorney, they developed their own working contract on how they'll approach finances, health, education, and more. Seven months after having Milo, Schulz seems pleased: "We get time together, we get time on our own, so it's a really great balance." (See what a judge just told an elderly woman in a "wretchedly unhappy marriage.")