Four parents who all fell in love with one another and now live in a so-called 'polyfamory' have acknowledged their unusual relationship might 'freak people out'.
Alysia Rodgers, 34, and her husband, Tyler, were in a relationship in the much more common sense when they met Sean Hartless, 46, and his wife, Taya.
Alysia and Tyler weren't looking for a new relationship - they didn't even know what polyamory was, but they couldn't deny when they started to get feelings for the other couple.
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Fast forward to February 2020, and all four adults were living together in what they dubbed a 'polyfamory', along with Tyler and Alysia's two children.
The foursome has since welcomed two more children, one birthed by Alysia and one by Taya.
Speaking to Today, Alysia explained the family 'did not regulate the biology', meaning they don't know whether it's Sean or Tyler who are the biological parents of each baby.
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Instead, she made clear the family are 'all equal parents to all of the children and it's not up for debate or discussion'.
"It's not something that we're trying to hide from the children either," she continued. "If they want to know where their DNA comes from, we will absolutely go down that path with them. But at this point in their lives, it doesn't matter."
Together, the four parents have opened up about their journey on their Instagram page, polyfamory, where they share updates about their kids, sleeping arrangements - which involves the men switching beds every other night - and general day-to-day life.
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One clip showed both Alysia and Taya kissing both Tyler and Sean as an example of what happens when they say goodbye in public.
Alongside the post, the family wrote: "Let’s be real.. it’s kinda fun to freak people out."
Tyler told Today it was 'really easy' to get his two children to adjust to the new living arrangement with Sean and Taya, as they already knew their parents were in a relationship.
"We told them: 'You know mom has a boyfriend and dad had a girlfriend and we're going to move in together, and we're all going to be a big family and they're going to help parent you, so we're going to need you to treat them like you treat us — like parents'," he recalled.
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The parents have said there are both pros and cons to their living situation, noting they have 'four sets of adult hands' to work on things and their children grow up knowing 'relationships don't have to look a certain way'.
However, they do meet some challenges when it comes to trying to match schedules, given there's a few extra people in the mix.
However, Tyler insisted that 'at the end of the day, we're just like any other monogamous family'.
"There's just four of us," he said. "Being a parent is so much more than just biology, and that's what we're about."
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Life
Emily Brown