# Friends with benefits that have children and live together? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 8, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653 "2013-02-08T00:06:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/1 "2013-02-08T00:06:43Z")
Seriously? Seriously? Do people not understand the meaning of friends with benefits? 😛 I think at the point you have two kids together and not only live together in the same house but have also moved thousands of miles together you leave the strict definition of FWB. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/2 "2013-02-08T00:28:18Z")
Some context might be nice. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/3 "2013-02-08T00:41:02Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Seriously? Seriously? Do people not understand the meaning of friends with benefits? > > 😛 I think at the point you have two kids together and not only live together in the same house but have also moved thousands of miles together you leave the strict definition of FWB. Um yeah. Okay. ETA: Whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/4 "2013-02-08T01:00:06Z")
Maybe they’re one of those newfangled couples who disavow labels like girlfriend, fiancee, or wife. No skin off your ass, is it? ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/5 "2013-02-08T01:03:15Z")
Context: A woman who lives with a man who is the father of their two children, who live in the same house for years, and have even moved together apparently seriously said they are friends with benefits. I was just thinking man, that is stretching the definition pretty far. Maybe she was trying to say they have an open marriage? ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/6 "2013-02-08T01:16:27Z")
Thank you for all those added details. In that case, I want to agree with **DrFidelius**. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/7 "2013-02-08T01:35:30Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Maybe they’re one of those newfangled couples who disavow labels like girlfriend, fiancee, or wife. No skin off your ass, is it? It is just funny, like if the word child fell out of style replaced by stuff like biological donor unit. Which just makes you go wait, what?😛 Is there some kind of bizarre stigma against hetero couples I am unaware of? ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/8 "2013-02-08T16:12:26Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Maybe she was trying to say they have an open marriage? I’d assume that she means they don’t love each other in a romantic way. They’re best buds, and they schtup (hence the kids), but they don’t, you know, _like_ like each other. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/9 "2013-02-08T16:41:55Z")
I know you try to start ten threads a day but could you at least make them interesting. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/10 "2013-02-08T17:11:55Z")
I know someone who was in this kind of situation for a while. They lived in the same house, with seperate lives, but had the benefits. They had a child together, her by choice, him by stupidity. He stopped living there after a while. She had other children from similar situations prior to that. Not so odd compared to the world of modern relationships. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/11 "2013-02-08T19:04:11Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I’d assume that she means they don’t love each other in a romantic way. They’re best buds, and they schtup (hence the kids), but they don’t, you know, _like_ like each other. In practical terms, that’s marriage in all but name. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/friends-with-benefits-that-have-children-and-live-together/649653/12 "2013-02-08T19:06:53Z")
> [@bump](#): > > In practical terms, that’s marriage in all but name. No, that would be “…and they _used to_ schtup (before the kids)…”