'Nice to meet you … shall we have a baby?': Portrayals of PACT families in UK newspaper media.

This paper attempts to provide insight into the social interpretation of pre-conceptually agreed-upon co-parenting (i.e. 'PACT', 'elective co-parenting', 'platonic co-parenting' or 'intentional co-parenting') families through a critical investigation of UK newspaper portrayals using reflexive thematic analysis with special attention paid to ascriptions of responsibility. Two main themes were identified: 'untraditionally conventional after all', and 'answering to your future children'. Our findings reveal how PACT appears to be presented in a nuanced manner. Journalists, along with the co-parents they portray, oscillate between different ways of looking at the practice. A picture of PACT is constructed that is simultaneously traditional and post-traditional (or modern), sometimes emphasising one aspect more prominently than the other. In the latter instances, the use of normative or evaluative language is more apparent. This suggests an active process of moral reflection within the articles. Notably, both traditional and post-traditional narratives are put to work in the defence of PACT, illustrating that, in certain contexts, 'tradition' and 'post-tradition' are not necessarily normatively opposed.