After connecting online, Tatijana Busic, an organizational consultant, and Brendan Schultz, a university administrator, met at a café in Toronto on a bright autumn day. ?We shook hands and then hugged, and I instantly knew that we were going to have a really nice time,? recalls Tatijana, 42. ?We just had chemistry.?
Brendan, 45, ticked off a lot of items on Tatijana?s wish list: He was financially stable, seemed psychologically healthy, didn?t smoke and only drank in moderation. He was warm but didn?t want to move too fast. He was even a snappy dresser. They made more dinner and wine dates, and as things progressed they both felt more and more that the fit was right. The next major step happened at the Christmas Market in Toronto?s Distillery District: Brendan met Tatijana?s daughter, Isadora, from a previous relationship. That went well, and soon Brendan?s parents were flying in from Winnipeg, keen to meet this seemingly perfect match. About six months in, over dinner in a softly lit restaurant, Brendan looked into Tatijana?s eyes and proposed: The two of them?Brendan, a gay man and Tatijana, a straight woman?should make a baby together. They spent the next six months figuring out logistics and a mutually agreeable timeline, before initiating the process. And then in the summer of 2016, Milo was born. This kind of arrangement, when two people who are not romantically attached decide to raise a child together, is called elective co-parenting. Call it a twist on friends wit...