“She Loves to Be Read To”

Using identity theory, this chapter explores the ways in which traditional family identities emerge within the childfree and childless multispecies family. These role identities, and accompanying behaviors, demonstrate the multispecies family as a type of family structure, different from other, single-species families without children and with increasing levels of macro-level support. Highlighting behavioral expectations of the “parent” in American culture, like caregiving, socializing, and nurturing, this chapter demonstrates how participants are parenting their dogs and cats in ways that are steadily transforming definitions of family as well as who can legitimately claim the “family” label, further increasing the diversification of family structure in the United States. Findings also show the unique repercussions that this family form can have, compared to single-species families without children, for economic expenditure, work-family balance, and emotional support within the multispecies family sphere.