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In modern French society where forms of the family are becoming more numerous and varied with an individualised approach to the matter, some parents are not legally recognised as such (as with stepfamilies and homoparental families, for example). Nevertheless, these non-statutory parents seek to obtain recognition from their entourage and society through a variety of strategies. Social spaces (common living space and the school and medical environments) can then serve as a form of support for such recognition. Analysing material from ten comprehensive interviews, the author shows that these private and public spaces can provide the background for practices recognised as being parental and thereby be mobilised in discourse as places for the legitimate and legitimising exercise of a relation of parenthood.