grammaticality - "There is" vs. "there are" when contracted

Unless I am mistaken, when referring to a single thing or entity, one can say there is or there's (the contraction of the same). When referring to more than one of something, the correct wording is there are, however, I am not aware of an actual contraction of the latter, or there're.

As a native speaker, it seems perfectly fine to hear (and to use) there's in place of there are (at least for some examples, but I can't think of any that really don't work), but is this a valid grammatical usage?

e.g.

There are many ways this can be stated.

There's many ways this can be stated.

Am I wrong in accepting this? Should I try to break myself of this?

Answer

It's an informal usage, but many native speakers have no problem at all with constructions like...

There's two ways this can go.

...even though they would balk at the full form There is two ways this can go.

By traditional rules of grammar, obviously, it's "incorrect". But in the contracted form it's perfectly normal in informal speech. I don't think anyone would be pedantic enough to suggest you should get out of the habit of using a natural form you're quite comfortable with.