Family by Choice

Book excerpt: "While Partnered Parenting is an emotional experience, this book focuses on practical issues: Is partnered parenting right for you? What's the best way to screen potential partners on the Internet? What's a co-parenting courtship like? Will a partnered parenting contract be fair, effective, and legal?" Partnered Parenting encompasses a wide variety of arrangements in which parents do not have a marital or romantic connection. It's a family by choice that thousands of people are creating for many different reasons... -- To relieve the pressure of finding the "perfect" life partner. -- To avoid the ticking clock of needing to be married while still fertile. -- To freely search for an ideal marriage partner while moving forward with a family plan. -- To sustain a romantic interest with someone who can't have children or doesn't want a family. -- To continue a career without sacrificing the dream of having a family. -- To create a family that is compatible with many alternative lifestyles. -- To build a secure, loving home that fulfills material, emotional, and spiritual needs of parents and children alike. Rachel has been featured in national and international media, including ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, CNN, BBC, The Randy Martin Show KTOP (Washington DC), The Ricky Lake Show, The Jeff Probst Show, Sunrise Australia, Daybreak (UK), the New York Times, Al Jazeera, You Magazine (UK), The Observer (UK), Grazia Magazine (UK) and more. Rachel is also a regular contributor to the Google blog mom.me. She will be a featured speaker at the Fertility Planit conference at UCLA, in April 2014. She and her family are dual residents of Los Angeles and Hawaii.