A man and two women who live as a threesome have announced they are expecting a baby — and insist that “three parents are better than two.”
Adam Lyons was dubbed “the luckiest man alive” because he shares his life with two girlfriends, Brooke Shedd and Jane Shalakhova.
Lyons is already the father of Shedd’s son, Dante, now 2, but now the London-born dad is expecting a baby boy with Shalakhova.
The threesome — who share a super-king-size bed — believe the new baby, who is due in July, will benefit from their set-up.
Lyons, 36, from East London, said: “It’s so sweet that we all get to parent and raise the kids together.”
“We have talked about it at length and we all consider ourselves parents to the children. With the kids, our titles are officially ‘Dad,’ ‘Mom’ and ‘Mom.’”
“For us, three definitely works better than two.”
In fact, the threesome believes that their unusual arrangement could be the future of relationships and parenting.
Lyons, who runs his own business consulting company, Psychology Hacker, is also stepdad to Shedd’s son Oliver, 7, from a previous relationship.
He said: “For us, three people works because it enables us to manage daily life so much better.”
“So many of our friends are in ‘normal’ two-person couple relationships with kids, jobs and all the other typical responsibilities and I see them struggling to juggle their lives. It’s difficult with two people.”
“But with three parents, we always have the ability for one person to look after the kids and as a result, we never begrudge each other anything because we all have lots of time.”
“With three people, it’s logistically so much easier to handle all those things — we share out the responsibilities and it fits our sexual preferences too.”
“When Brooke, Jane and I first came out about our relationship, we had some criticism and certain people said we wouldn’t last.”
“But we’ve been going for five years now. What we have is not a fling or a phase, we’re a real family with healthy, happy kids.”
“Our son Oliver doesn’t even recognize what is ‘unusual’ about our family.”
“This should be the future of relationships, where people are able to enjoy love in any way they feel works. Three people and three parents makes so much sense to us.”
Mom-to-be Shalakhova, 27, says she never wanted children until she realized how much easier it was with three parents.
Shalakhova, who also works with Lyons in his business consulting company, explained: “When I had boyfriends before, I never wanted or cared about kids.”
“Growing up, I always thought that when you had a baby, you became a slave to your child. You see a lot of parents struggling.”
“But raising Dante with Adam and Brooke and watching him grow up with three parents around — I realize we could do it as a family. With three parents around, it’s so doable.”
“With three parents, we can still have a social life, make time for one another and share the parenting tasks so you don’t end up like the typical sleep-deprived mom.”
“With two partners, there’s so much help and I’ll never have to leave my kids with someone I don’t trust.”
Bisexual Shedd, 28, said: “I’m so excited for Jane’s pregnancy — I love talking to her bump. I’ve always wanted four sons so this is a dream come true.”
“I think our good parenting is one of the sexiest things about our relationship. It’s incredible to see Adam and Jane with the kids and how we share all the responsibilities.”
“We definitely want a few more kids and I would love to have a wedding to show my commitment to Adam and Jane.”
“Oliver says he would like to get married someday too and he knows three people can be really happy together in a relationship. We’re setting a good example.”
Lyons, Shalakhova and Shedd all live together on a large plot of land in Austin, Texas, with two separate houses — one of which they use as an office and one of which Shedd uses as a homeschool where she plans to teach all the trio’s children.
Shalakhova, also bisexual, says: “We love living and working together — the family house is a one-minute walk from our office.”
“Lyons and I can have meetings in the office and head back home for lunch with Shedd and the kids. It allows us to spend more time together. I love coming home and getting a kiss from Shedd, Dante and Oliver.”
“My pregnancy was a planned one. We were trying for a baby — it just felt like the right time and parenting together as a threesome is a lot of fun.”
“But Brooke has the primary mothering role — she looks after the children and will homeschool all the kids.”
Shedd, who works part-time for Lyons’ company, said: “Adam and I always knew I wanted to homeschool our kids. We both excelled at school because we found it too easy.”
“We wanted to give our children a chance to really succeed and get lots of attention. Oliver can read, write and understand things beyond a normal school academic curriculum.”
Shedd said: “Jane and Adam still really want a daughter so we’ve agreed that they should definitely try for another baby.”
“But I would definitely love to get married to Adam and Jane. It’s something we’ve always wanted even though it’s not legal.”
“Even so, it’s important that the three of us can make a commitment to each other with our family and friends around.”
Lyons said: “We haven’t got any solid plans for a wedding just yet but it’s on the cards. Prior to that, I’m bringing Shedd, Jane and the kids to England before she gives birth. I want to celebrate our pregnancy with my loved ones in Britain.”
Lyons, Shedd and Shalakhova admit they still like to involve a fourth partner in their sex life.
Lyons said: “We are still open in our relationship and we do sleep with other people outside the three of us but to be honest, we don’t have much time anymore.”
“We’re exhausted and happy with the children.”
“We’re still open to fun when it comes along. If we wanted to add someone, I’m sure we could.”
Shalakhova added: “Absolutely we still make time to go to strip clubs together. We just hang out and have fun there.”
“With three people around, it’s easy to schedule in fun activities. We always make sure we have time to do fun things together and have weekly date nights.”
“Adam, Brooke and I still sleep in the same super-king-size bed together — it still gets very hot and sweaty with the three of us.”