Parenting -Special Concerns board - could we go back to separating these families, please?

[Anonymous]

Jeff and Maria,

Would you mind revisiting this issue again, please?

When you combined four different kinds of families under this heading (due to limited space), several of us questioned the combination, as the issues may or may not overlap. However, now that you have a new drop-down for nanny forums (which removed one big area) and a new category for pets, just wondering if there's enough space. Also would note that TTC has 197 threads, and pets has 194, while your special parent group has 1505 - not the most active board by far, but collectively much more active than some. What do you think? TY.

[Anonymous]

That's not a fair comparison, since Pets and TTC are new (all the old TTC threads went automatically to Infertility once those were split) and Special Concerns is not new.

[Anonymous]

I wish there was a separate adoption thread.

[jsteele]

How would you propose the forum be divided? We originally combined three groups, not four. In addition to the fact that the three original groups had low traffic, there were requests for additional groups which we satisfied by including the topics in the Special Concerns forum.

[Anonymous]

OP here.

My error, yes, you combined three and added "blended" as a fourth group. I would suggest going back to the original three separate forums and letting any blended families post in general parenting with the word "blended" in their title if there's a specific issue. I don't know the demographics re blended families in this area, but I do know adoptive parents, single parents and gay parents, and still believe these are worthy of separate fora. Thanks for listening, Jeff.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm curious why this is important to you. I fall into 2 of the categories covered by the Special Concerns (single parenting, and adoption) but don't find it particularly onerous to weed through posts related to divorce, blended families, or GLBTQ parents.

[Anonymous]

I agree with OP but have no dog in the fight (woman married to a man with a bio kid). It's kind of like the difference between being a "person of color" or being "non-white": it's not nice to feel like the leftovers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP but have no dog in the fight (woman married to a man with a bio kid). It's kind of like the difference between being a "person of color" or being "non-white": it's not nice to feel like the leftovers.

This. And I'm in the same situation as pp - woman married to a man with a bio kid.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with OP but have no dog in the fight (woman married to a man with a bio kid). It's kind of like the difference between being a "person of color" or being "non-white": it's not nice to feel like the leftovers.

This. And I'm in the same situation as pp - woman married to a man with a bio kid.

Could you two posters explain a bit more clearly what it is that you would prefer? I don't understand the "person of color" or "non-white" analogy. If I understand what the OP is asking for, its a group for single moms, and group for gay and lesbians, and a group for adopted families. Blended families are left to fend for themselves and if you are a single lesbian mom you flip a coin, I guess. Unless I create a forum for every imaginable type of family situation, there is always going to be those who are left out. We will always have leftovers.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I realize you cannot have a separate group for every kind of family, but the three groups were separate before, and I understood that the combination occurred when there was not enough space for all of the desired forums. Now that there is a separate area for nanny forums, I just wondered if we could go back.

I realize there are parents who may fit into more than one of these groups, but don't think they would mind checking two or more forums. Others may disagree.

Jeff/Maria, would you mind cross-posting this in the affected forum to see if others want to weigh in? I was waiting for more replies here, but maybe not enough affected parents look here. Thank you.