Is coparenting different from the marital relationship?
Absolutely! First of all, not all people who are married even have children, so the marital relationship is definitely different from the coparenting relationship. Second, the people who raise children together are not always married, and in many cases they are related in a very different way (e.g., a mom and an aunt, or a dad and his mother). This means that you can be in a coparenting relationship with someone even if that person isn’t the child’s biological parent. Finally, while having a good marital relationship is certainly desirable, it does not guarantee a good coparenting alliance. In fact, it is possible to have a wonderful marriage, but have difficulty doing an effective job of coparenting. The opposite is also true: some people who are divorced or who never married can do a wonderful job of coparenting their children.
