Having few serious relationships in my past, I recently started dating and becoming serious with my girlfriend. Although we are merely girlfriend and girlfriend right now, we agreed early on that neither of us liked the words ‘life partner’ or just ‘partner’ in general. It DOES sound like a business related phrase. No sooner had we discussed this when, a few days later, I got a call from my para-mom with this great idea. Introduce the word ‘para-kin.’ “Brilliant!” I thought. I 
told my girlfriend about it and she thought it was perfect also. Even though the word girlfriend works for now, as our relationship reaches new levels, the word para-kin will roll off the tip of my tongue as opposed to the word ‘partner’ which makes me cringe. I hope that people start using this term in all aspect of family and loving relationships. I have definitely already implemented this word into my vocabulary and am trying spread the word as much as possible.
Tasha, NY
