Core Docs - Church Management - Blended Families

Rock Version: v20.0
Last Modified: 2026-04-24 11:51 AM

Families come in all shapes and sizes. Managing the complexities of relationships, whether in real life or a database, can be complicated. Luckily, Rock is very flexible. Below we discuss some of the options for entering blended families.

Dual Family Approach

When parents have dual custody and both parents are involved with your organization, you may wish to use the dual family approach. In our example below Ben and Sarah Jones divorced a couple of years ago. Both have joint custody of their son Brian. Sarah went on to marry Jim Simmons. This is one way to set up these two families.

In this example Brian, the child, is in both families. He is still one record in the database, but he is a member of both families. This approach has some details you should know about.

Single Family with Relationships Approach

In the single-family approach the children of blended families are only connected to a single family and relationships are used to link them to other individuals (e.g., for check-in).

This approach may be preferable in cases where one parent has sole custody or if the other family doesn't participate in your organization. In this approach, reporting and most other features act just like a typical family. Check-in can be allowed by other individuals using the relationship of Can Check-in.

What About Foster Families?
Rock's flexibility also comes in handy when adding foster families. The best approach is to add the children to the family, and then create a new Known Relationship type that designates them as fosters.