Keke Palmer is choosing community instead of doing motherhood alone
TheGrio...
Keke Palmer understands it takes a village to raise a child, so she, her sisters, and their kids are doing so together under one roof.
Whether they were your actual cousins or your play cousins, everyone can relate to the joy and memories that came with hanging out with your cousins as a child. It was the kind of fun you often never wanted to end, and for Keke Palmer’s three-year-old son, it doesn’t have to.
This week, Keke Palmer invited fans into her home to give a house tour with Architectural Digest. The video quickly went viral for showcasing the “I Love Boosters” star’s natural comedic energy, which her son Leo appears to have inherited in some clips. However, beyond the chats about furniture and wallpaper choices, Palmer discusses one very intentional choice she made when building her home: living with her two sisters and their children.
“My house is kind of like Full House, except instead of three uncles, we’ve got three aunts,” she told the outlet, joking that she is like Bob Saget’s character Danny Tanner. “Danny Tanner, girl! Leo is Michelle: ‘You got it, dude.’”
Now, while author Jamilah Lemieux proclaimed this style of living as “the future,” the actress is not the first to adopt this form of coparenting.
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It’s actually a trend we’ve seen in Black communities for decades. Long before the nuclear family became the default image of success and stability in America, Black families, and frankly, most families across the African diaspora and beyond, operated in networks. Grandmothers, aunts, sisters, cousins: all of them in proximity, all of them plugged into the raising of children who technically belonged to one woman but practically belonged to everyone. Before “it takes a village” became a leisurely idiom, the concept of community members working together to raise children was the blueprint. This looked like one auntie picking up the kids every Tuesday, another handling extracurriculars on Wednesdays, and a grandmother making dinner on Thursdays.
And at some point, as mainstream society began selling us the dream of a nuclear family, the concept of that kind of community being possible quietly disappeared. With that came the isolating mentality that family households should just consist of one couple, in one home.
When we talk about what Black women need, words like rest, support, care, and partnership always emerge. But those conversations often end up returning to a romantic partner as the solution. Now, while a romantic partner can and should ideally be the person who shows up and helps make the weight of everyday life feel a little lighter, they are not the only ones who can do that.
In fact, journalists Ayesha Rascoe and her best friend Jasmin Melvin bought a house together in 2025, where they live with Rascoe’s three kids and Melvin’s two kids as a blended family. Their decision to “platonically coparent” their children together was rooted in a need for help following a recent divorce. Whether it’s a sister or a best friend, this is a concept that author Rhaina Cohen explores in her book, “The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center.”
Today, as more and more women over 30 choose to be single mothers, these “Brady Bunch,” “Full House”-esque households may become increasingly common. While one may argue that Palmer has the financial resources to easily craft a multi-sister household, the principle of this concept transcends square footage. For women across income levels, this could look like moving closer to family and opening up conversations with the people in their circles about sharing childcare and creating systems that can help make the load of life and motherhood feel more manageable for everyone.
Just as romantic partnership can help make life easier, so can friendship and sisterhood. And Palmer, Rascoe, and Melvin’s children are witnessing that firsthand.