To want to live with women platonically in a sort of shared house/ estate and raise kids?

[cultkid]

See partners on weekend?

Live with the women otherwise share childcare etc
Always have female companions around to hang out with?

The place would be sooo tidy and smell so good

What a load of sexist clap trap.
Only women are tidy and smell good???

And even if you ignore the sexism I couldn’t think of anything worse. Women are always putting down other women, competing against them and dismissing each other’s choices.

I can’t think of anything worse, to be honest. I get tense and stressed watching other people’s parenting on holiday, I can’t imagine having to deal with it all the time.

@Proudboomer

What a load of sexist clap trap. Only women are tidy and smell good???

And even if you ignore the sexism I couldn’t think of anything worse. Women are always putting down other women, competing against them and dismissing each other’s choices.

If "all women are tidy" is sexist then surely "women are always putting down other women..." is as well?

I would love the separation between sex/romance and childcare and chores.. clutter, housework and childcare really kill my libido.

It sounds idyllic. The reality wouldn't match

I would really dislike it

I find the competitiveness between some women happens because of men and growing up in a sexist society not because we are innately competitive and bitchy to each other... if anything men are far worse for conpeting to resources (only one gets to be the father at a time).

I definitely don’t miss house share days, with both males and females

Haha, my friends and I used to fantasise about this all the time (our kids are all grown up now!)

Yeah it's not for me. I definitely dont want to live with someone elses children. I also enjoy living with DH (most of the time!) and would honestly miss him.

I would also hate to not be in control of decoration, furniture, having the heating on/off etc etc.

The place would be sooo tidy and smell so good

Really? I'm a messy cow and I know a number of well-educated and professional women who are too. Some of them are manky with it.

I'd hate it to be honest. Couldn't bear it.

I love this idea.

Other children too? Oh man that sounds like a permanent play group. Nope not for me.

I've often wondered why more people don't live like this. Instead of loads of single mothers struggling on the poverty line, endlessly worried about childcare, loss of income if DC is sick etc, and worried about manipulative exes. Why don't women get together to share large houses with nice gardens, do cooking, cleaning and laundry on a rota, have a system for shared childcare, babysitting etc. It would make so much more sense.

I rather like the idea of this in theory. I'd need my own space though. Something like the setup in Big Love (minus the fundamentalist religion and shared husband!) - a few houses that share a big garden or grounds, a rota and cooperation with big chores and decisions, non compulsory shared social activities... As long as I could retreat into my own house without criticism when I needed to.

In reality it would probably descend into one household taking over more than the others, everyone complaining about the ones who preferred not to socialise as much, one group who didn't pull their weight... I'm probably too introverted to make it work well for me. Lovely idea in theory though.

I recently read a (completely chick-lit) book based around this idea. Kindle freebie I think. Of course, the ending is predictable! Wife Support System (Club?) or something similar?

Belive me, if tidy is what you're after, you would not want to live with me!

OMG! Some of my women friends are slobs! The house would not be tidy or smell good. And some of the others are too neat freaky and the only smellS would be bleach and dettol. Me, OTOH - my house is just right!

Even if you personally hate the idea, I don't think its a bad thing if it was more common to live with our best friends to raise our children rather than feel the pressure to get married cos its the done thing or the financially astute option. In my case, my best friend is my DH but for many women out there, would they have married their husbands if it was socially acceptable children alone with a platonic partner? I know women who settled for men because of 'biological clock' and because they didn't want to be single mums for understandable reasons.

I find a lot of men are very complacent because they know that at a certain age, women would inevitably want to settle down and stay married cos of the kids, biological clock etc. No wonder this gives them carte blanche to act like total jerks (reference Mumsnet relationships section). If a woman's biological instincts was separate from romantic relationships, maybe more men would realize they actually have to be good husbands to warrant a woman wanting to live with them if there is a viable alternative.

Its like how domestic abuse was much more common in the day when women didn't have careers and basically had two choices- marriage or the nunnery. Now that men know that women have careers and can divorce, they treat women better, sadly we still have a long way to go.

I mean, given that 50 % of marriages fail, this seems like a more stable way of raising children. No matter what happens in love, the children still retain the same family setup and benefit from the economies of scale of a partnered family i.e. help with childcare, more earning power.

Children growing up without their fathers living with them by deliberate design? When you say 'help with childcare', it sounds like you're assuming that men will never be able to or want to parent their own children and are already suggesting that them 'help with childcare' is something that mothers should be grateful for rather than expecting, as it's naturally their sole responsibility.

Believe it or not, there are loads of loving, devoted fathers out there, who don't 'help out' with childcare but actually parent their own children as part of a partnership. They would be prevented from doing this, because they are male. There are also a lot of uncaring, neglectful and/or abusive mothers. They would be allowed to remain, and also to have a place living amongst and influencing other people's children as well, because they are women. There are also a lot of people - men and women - who have actively chosen not to make children a part of their lives and prefer to retain their own adult freedoms throughout. The men would have this decision fully respected, but the women would just have to suck it up and behave like good little women are expected to.

Minus the kids, sounds great!

I always wanted kind of a super-friendship, where we are committed to live together.
platonically

I’ll stay living with my partner. He looks after our children, is tidy and smells nice.

I’ve never met anyone else that I could live with. Or that could live with me probably. 😬 Hanging out with female companions constantly isn’t for me.

My friends and I joke (not really a joke) about living together in a commune without men.

We are pretty serious about it

Mean to say: share our lives together.

I wanted this as a young mother in the1980s. I imagined that we would live independently in a supportive women's community and that we would also establish mother-friendly workplaces.

I imagine could become very bitchy and nasty environment very quickly if people are perceived to not pull their weight, parent wrong, not fit in socially

"How dare you tell off my little Tarquin"

etc