{"id":94125,"date":"2023-01-05T19:57:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T19:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/?p=94125"},"modified":"2023-01-05T19:57:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T19:57:15","slug":"single-mom-explains-living-in-a-mommune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/single-mom-explains-living-in-a-mommune\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok mom makes moving in with friends to form a &#8216;mommune&#8217; look like heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You&rsquo;ve probably heard people say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, after a difficult divorce, single mom Kristin Batykefer made a life change that takes that quote pretty literally. The mom moved in with her friends and formed a &lsquo;mommune&rsquo;&mdash;a combination of the words &ldquo;mom&rdquo; and &ldquo;commune&rdquo;&mdash;to raise their kids together and share household responsibilities. Now, her unique lifestyle has gone viral and all of her fans on TikTok are asking, &ldquo;How do we join?&rdquo;<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-exactly-is-a-mommune\">What exactly is a mommune?<\/h2><p>Batykefer, who goes by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@beachykefer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BeachyKefer<\/a> on social media, caught people&rsquo;s attention in mid-December after sharing what it&rsquo;s like to be sick when you live in a mommune.<\/p><p>&ldquo;You get treated like this,&rdquo; she says in her video before sharing snapshots from her day. &ldquo;My favorite kind of cookies made from scratch. Dinner cooked for you, and it&rsquo;s homemade vegetable soup. The kids were taken to the park so I could rest. This is your sign to move into a mommune.&rdquo;<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-tiktok wp-block-embed-tiktok\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@beachykefer\/video\/7178997980198980906\" data-video-id=\"7178997980198980906\" data-embed-from=\"oembed\" style=\"max-width:605px; min-width:325px;\"> <section> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"@beachykefer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@beachykefer?refer=embed\">@beachykefer<\/a> <p>Shoulda moved into a Mommune a long time ago. Support system like no other. &#129392; <a title=\"mommune\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/mommune?refer=embed\">#mommune<\/a> <a title=\"fyp\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/fyp?refer=embed\">#fyp<\/a> <a title=\"singlemom\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/singlemom?refer=embed\">#singlemom<\/a> <a title=\"singlemomlife\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/singlemomlife?refer=embed\">#singlemomlife<\/a> <a title=\"foryou\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/foryou?refer=embed\">#foryou<\/a> <a title=\"divorcetok\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/divorcetok?refer=embed\">#divorcetok<\/a> <\/p> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"&#9836; out of the question - Maya Wagner\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/out-of-the-question-7176814019251243822?refer=embed\">&#9836; out of the question &ndash; Maya Wagner<\/a> <\/section> <\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div><\/figure><p>Her video has been watched more than a million times and inspired tons of questions from curious commenters. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@beachykefer\/video\/7179723256692444462?is_from_webapp=v1&amp;item_id=7179723256692444462\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">follow up post<\/a>, Batykefer explains that her mommune is exactly what it sounds like: a community of moms living together and helping one another. <\/p><p>She says it started after she found out her former husband was having an affair. She and her daughter moved in with family friends who are a married couple and empty nesters, then one of her other mom friends who was also going through a divorce joined them. Now, she says her mommune consists of three moms, their kids and the married couple. She describes them as her &ldquo;chosen family,&rdquo; and they all live and work peacefully together.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-tiktok wp-block-embed-tiktok\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@beachykefer\/video\/7179723256692444462<\/div><\/figure><p>&ldquo;It is the most amazing thing ever,&rdquo; adds Batykefer. &ldquo;I 100% recommend starting your own mommune, but it really does have to be [with] people who align with you, your values, your beliefs and how you want to raise your children, and you trust them. I think that&rsquo;s the most important thing to me.&rdquo;<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-are-mommunes-a-new-trend\">Are mommunes a new trend?<\/h2><p>Batykefer isn&rsquo;t the first person to come up with the idea of a mommune. It&rsquo;s a concept that&rsquo;s been catching on among single parents. Last March, two single moms spoke with <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/parents\/moms\/single-moms-buy-house-rcna19604\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Today<\/a><\/em> about their decision to buy a home with two other friends and raise their kids together. There&rsquo;s even a website called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coabode.org\/programs\/program\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CoAbode<\/a> where single moms can meet one another with the intention of eventually sharing a home.<\/p><p>Single parents who watched Batykefer&rsquo;s TikTolk videos are also excited about the idea of living within a supportive community of other parents.<\/p><p>&ldquo;I just really love this idea,&rdquo; one person writes. &ldquo;Mothers need communal support and that doesn&rsquo;t get said enough, especially in our individualistic society.&rdquo;<\/p><p>Others say they already live in a mommune or have in the past, and they wouldn&rsquo;t have it any other way.<\/p><p>&ldquo;I did this as well with my son after I left my husband,&rdquo; one person shares. &ldquo;My BFF welcomed us, and I wouldn&rsquo;t have gotten through those years otherwise.&rdquo;<\/p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m doing this on a property with individual houses, but communal spaces would be fabulous,&rdquo; another person adds.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-bottom-line-on-mommunes\">The bottom line on mommunes<\/h2><p>Raising kids and running a household is no easy task. For a lot of single parents, paying for things like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/how-much-does-child-care-cost\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">child care<\/a> eats up a huge percentage of the budget, and then there&rsquo;s the extra work of solo parenting on top of everything else. It is difficult to do it all alone, and Batykefer is part of a seemingly growing number of parents who are asking, &ldquo;Why should we have to?&rdquo;<\/p><p>In parenting circles, it&rsquo;s often said that the right choice is the one that works best for your family. Whether you call it a mommune, platonic co-parenting or something else, these groups are proof that hardworking single parents are finding new and creative ways to do what feels right for their families, and they&rsquo;re inspiring plenty of others along the way.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A single mom on TikTok is going viral after sharing what it&#8217;s like to raise your family while living in a &#8216;mommune&#8217;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1264,"featured_media":94222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"enable_toc":false,"care_reviewed_by":0,"care_post_updated_flag":false,"care_updated_date":"","last_update":"2023-01-05","view_count":5135,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"member-type":[3],"vertical":[6,11],"platform":[2],"class_list":["post-94125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","member-type-seeker","vertical-children","vertical-news-trends","platform-resources"],"acf":[],"created":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1264"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94125"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94221,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94125\/revisions\/94221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94125"},{"taxonomy":"member-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-type?post=94125"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=94125"},{"taxonomy":"platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/platform?post=94125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}