Here is what has been going though my head lately (or you could skip to the pic at the bottom of the entry for a confusing and generalized overview):

Someday, I would like to adopt a child. I have no interest in creating one of my own and somebody else's is just as good, but without the whole issue of gynecologists or relationship therapists or potty-training (the girl I adopt will already have been potty trained). There is so much that goes into raising a child. I can't do that kind of thing alone. This post will probably make me sound like a complete hippy nutcase, but I've thought about this for a while now, and wouldn't it be better to have a "village" raise your child. In other words, i believe it would be in the both the child's and the parents' best interests for the care-takers to have the following attributes:
1) Caring and Loving
2) Attentive
3) Available
4) Accessible
5) Varied/Diverse

It is this last one that means the most to me. You're probably wondering what "varied" could possibly mean. I intend to say that I believe it to be in the best interest of the child to grow up in an environment with a multitude - or ideally, a doubled - parental set. These parents should not necessarily be romantically involved. In fact, I feel it is almost necessary to point out that the parents should love each other but should not be in love with each other. That sort of thing takes the focus away from the child.

But let us read through the list properly:

I. Caring and Loving
I would like to think that providing loving and caring parents should be a priority when a child is being raised. I know this is not always the case. Some parents do not really want the child or are bound to having it for religious or moral reasons. Others do it because they think it will strengthen the bond with their partners. These are good reasons, but I really feel that if you're going to have a child in your life, you should first and foremost be sure that there is room in your heart to care for them and love them properly. All parents involved in raising a child should love and care for the child as much as they love anc care for their partners or communities.

II. Attentive
We all have heard horror stories of parents who are unattentive to their children and some horrible fate befalls them. I think it's safe to say that my belief is that people should have to get a license in order to have or adopt children. How many people are out there who have no idea what the hell they're doing, don't give a damn, or made one mistake too many. The ideal parent system would ensure that all parents are attentive of their child, making the child feel accomplished and proud of themselves. Praise your child in their creative endeavors. Pay attention to how they work in school. These are important aspects of raising a child.

III. Available
Maintaining an orderly household and a busy schedule takes time and work. Adding a child in often makes things harder. Baby-sitting, PTA meetings, soccer practice, gymnastics, teacher-parent conferences, chaperoning, and more could all be done with more ease with a greater number of parents. Hear me out! 2 parents means that if one is at the nursery school talking to the administrators, the other must be at home or hiring a sitter. With 4 parents, this is less of an issue. Time away from work becomes less, and everyone can live their lives more easily. Less stress because of more of a community. More people available to the child means more time available to each individual grownup to do their own thing.

IV. Accessible
The best parents are those who can relate to their child. The young-at-heart age more gracefully and seem generally happier. Being close to your child and raising her properly means being accessible to her. Be there to answer her questions. Understand where she is coming from. That's really all I have to say on this subject.

V. Varied/Diverse
This is perhaps the most interesting concept to me. When considering my closest friends who I would want to raise a child with, I consider not the things we have in common, but the interesting aspects of our lives we can each share with a child, to make things different. It is through diversity that changes are made to the way we think. Although my friends and I come from similar economic and religious backgrounds (sort of) and are all straight, we have differences which I think would be important to raising a child correctly:
a) exposure to different lifestyles than our own
b) exposure to other languages. Amongst the four of us, we have English, Chinese, French, Hebrew, and Spanish. And possibly some Malay
c) different courses of studies and ways of looking at the world. We are Education, Biology, Economics, and Film majors. It doesn't get much more different than that. At least one representative from each of the academic divisions. Think of all the ways we could expand this child's mind. There are so many different ways to approach things
d) different racial and ethnic backgrounds
e) varied preferences of pets (this is a big deal, believe me)
f) varied interests in terms of sports and activities: skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, tennis...

VI. Other Assets of this system:
a)four parents means 8 grand parents. That's a lot of birthday presents.
b) four parents means at least 4 colleges with legacy potential. Possibly more if some of us attend grad schools
c) four parents means greater income to support the child and the household. A community structure means everyone shares and everyone is supported.
d) There's a lot of options for take-your-daughter-to-work day.
e) if you don't know how to handle a situation, maybe someone else will.

Everyone has their own skills and interests which could be imparted to the child. Things like this bring me such great excitement. If I could actually get my friends to agree with this, life would be so wonderful. Of course, I know this isn't realistic for many many reasons, but it still makes sense to me as the best way to raise a child. Parents would have to agree in advance on certain aspects of the child's upbringing such as discipline and schooling, and how to handle situations where it's pointed out that her family is obviously different. But wouldn't it all be wonderful?

<img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/mistifi246/comic%20strips/communalkid.jpg">