The best/worth thing about being born into a polyamorous family with five shared grandparents AND plenty of kids to go around? It’s all those complicated family connections.

They say it takes a village to raise a family, and that’s exactly what I have. This can be good in some ways and complicated in others.

Last minute, me and Rob need someone to watch the kids, and I’m not kidding. I send a text to our family chat and – let’s see Aunt Robbie, Uncle Tim, Nana Sear, and yeah ten people respond.

Meanwhile, little Meg watches us with her fist in her mouth, completely unaware of the family drama.

“What?” Rob asks.

“I think we might have a party at our house tonight while we’re out,” I warn him. “Ten people so far have offered to come over and watch her. Want to see the list?”

He laughs. This isn’t his first encounter with the interesting “problems” of my family.

“Oh, wait,” I said with a sigh of relief. “Grandma Jill gets dibs.” As the grandmother who actually birthed my dad, she always gets dibs. It’s an unwritten rule.

“Amma Jill!” Meg shouts. Her favorite grandparent. Well, second favorite. Okay, she loves all her grandparents, and they all love her.

“Oh boy,” I said. “Jill always spoils her. You know Jill always spoils her.”

“Amma Jill! Amma Jill!”

Rob chuckles. “On the bright side, we don’t have to worry about tonight.”

***

I’ve learned a lot about polyamory in the past year or so. Until then, I thought of it as something cults do, mostly hyper-masculine males with a harem. And, sometimes it can be like that. But, I’ve learned polyamory can also be a loving relationship of mutual respect. It might not even be sexual. In this my fantasy dream world, I think it would be awesome to be part of a polyamorous family with lots of grandparents because of a group marriage on one side of the family.

Personally, I find the idea of living with ONE other person mostly-unbearable much of the time. Anyone who can make it work for more than one person, yeah they might not mind looking after the kids for a while. I mean that has to take mad social skills.