For several years now, we know the traditional, nuclear, two-parent, married hetero family is the minority. Instead, as many of us have suspected, the majority of kids in this country are being raised in households that are multigenerational, headed by gay parents, or -- in the majority of these non-traditional families -- single moms or dads.
We're talking hundreds of millions of kids and their parents who struggle to feel normal, even if the census bureau tells us that families like yours and mine are actually the normal ones.
This trend is so long coming, and affects so many people, that it is nearly amazing that we didn't already have a big website to document and celebrate it. Last year former top Canadian parenting magazine editor Brandie Weikle launched TheNewFamily.com, a website and podcast by the same name, that celebrates the myriad ways to define family.
Weikle, who lives next door to her ex-husband and his new wife, talks about the joys and challenges of navigating the no-man's land of reinventing family -- and how, in many ways, all the definitions and nuance don't always matter as much as the ties that bind. Her site and podcast celebrate divorced families, parenting a transgendered child, kids raised by grandparents, families where the wife earns more, a father who made giant sacrifices to make a European trip with his disabled child, and so many more. Her 1,000 Family Project aims to document 1,000 family stories -- celebrating and normalizing all of us.
