By Laurie Frankel

Three college friends now in grad school…one gets pregnant…they all decide to join forces, move in together and raise the baby…very takes-a-village, kumbaya, group hug stuff. It all sounds well and good until the fantasy of raising a baby becomes the reality of raising a baby and while in grad school no less. The whole takes-a-village mentality comes smack up against the sadly extinct notion of individual, personal responsibility. Where is the line between the two? How much is too much to expect from others? How much is too much to even accept from others? Just because someone is offering, does that automatically mean it is okay to accept? When does it become the responsibility, even obligation, of the recipient to say, "No thank you, I must do this on my own"? At what point should one say, "my choices, my decisions, my predicament, my responsibility"? All of this ambiguity means the line between mother and friend gets blurred in this communal child-raising setting and this creates problems when an emergency hits. Who has the right to call herself Atlas's mother in this complex situation? It is a thought-provoking story.

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