Alloparenting is a community approach to parenting in which children are partially raised by people who aren’t their biological parents.
- Who can be an alloparent?: Anyone can be an alloparent, but they’re “usually highly related relatives, close friends, or people in the community,” says Sham Singh, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist at WINIT Clinic.
- Benefits of alloparenting: It distributes the workload of parenting and ensures the child has access to resources for healthy development. It also strengthens communities, raising cooperating and mutual concern, says Singh.
- How common is it?: A 2001 study found that out of 1,100 children followed from birth to age 7, 90% had experienced nonmaternal care by age 3, and 50% were spending over 30 hours a week in nonmaternal care.
- Examples of alloparenting: Alloparenting can take many different forms. Here are a few diverse examples from Suzannah Weiss, AASECT-certified sex educator, sex and love coach, birth doula, and author of Subjectified:
- A child being taken care of by grandparents, step-parents, siblings, or non-biological parents
- In non-monogamous relationships, with three or more partners parenting a child
- When teachers, tutors, and babysitters provide support to a child
- Other words for alloparenting: Community parenting, allomothering, and in animals it’s called cooperative breeding
Read more about parenting on Relationship Smart:
- Alloparenting Benefits, How to Do It, and FAQs
- Which Parenting Style Is Most Encouraged in Modern America?
- What Is Co-Regulation?
- How to Break the Cycle of Generational Trauma: Expert Q&A
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