From the category archives:

Interacting with the world

Mom titles, the kindergarten edition

by Lyn January 6, 2012

Leigh started kindergarten this fall. She’s doing great and we are slowly adjusting to being parents of a “school-age” kid. Our district is extremely supportive of GLBT-headed families. They have a family-liason specifically for GLBT issues, who is a resource for teachers, students and families. We’ve always been certain that the school and the district [...]

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How should straight parents explain queer families?

by Lyn November 17, 2011

It’s happened a few times lately, that upon finding out that I’m one of two moms in our family, I’m asked by another parent how to explain two-mom families to their kids (lately this has been in adult contexts, not with my kids in tow). Most recently, a dad I was talking to mentioned that [...]

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A weekend off

by Lyn October 18, 2011

When Leigh was a baby, I loved going out with her by myself. I’d take her to new parent groups or to run errands as the only mom in evidence. I loved the freedom and confidence I felt. I soaked up every last compliment about my fabulous baby, and every assumption that I was a [...]

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Surprising connections might not be so surprising

by Lyn October 3, 2011

As we’ve written about before, a big shift for our family over the last two years or so (about a year of that was thinking) has been connecting with families containing kids via the same donor as our kids. As Gail mentioned in her last post, when Leigh was a baby, we found out (though [...]

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Stereotype Breakers

by Lyn August 14, 2011

We’re friends with a family with a somewhat gender-variant son, Q, who likes pink and wears his hair long (and identifies as a boy, you can read their smart thoughts at labels are for jars). Leigh has played with Q a few times, and thinks he’s fabulous, and specifically asks if we can play with [...]

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“I wish I had a mom and a dad”

by Gail June 21, 2011

Last week, before we went to the queer pride parade, Lyn and I were talking with Leigh about what pride is and why we have it. It was a good conversation. Then suddenly Leigh blurted out, “I wish I had a mom and a dad!” Just as we were both opening up our mouths to [...]

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How do we refer to parents in two-mom families?

by Gail April 5, 2011

I was recently reading an article about queer parents, “(How) Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter” by Stacey and Biblarz, and hit up against a not uncommon academic term for a lesbian non-biological mother — “social mother.” The whole time I was reading the paper (which is really good, by the way) I kept [...]

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A perk of shared parenting: guilt-free travel (by myself)

by Lyn August 22, 2010

For the first time since Ira’s birth, I’m on my way to a professional conference. For five days, someone else will do the cooking and I won’t have to clean up after anybody (well, other than myself a little bit). I can easily take a shower every day if I want to (without any children [...]

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Family Week: Support, Advocacy, and Difficult Conversations

by Gail August 12, 2010
Thumbnail image for Family Week: Support, Advocacy, and Difficult Conversations

We recently came back from a terrific trip to Provincetown for Family Week. We had a great time and will likely be attending the gathering again many times. It’s wonderful to look around town and realize that most of the families you see are headed by queer people. Everywhere you look there are two moms [...]

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An ode to non-parental care

by Gail July 20, 2010

I love spending time with my kids, and I think that I’m a fairly good parent. Lyn is a pretty good parent, too. I am thrilled to be parenting with her because she has skills that I don’t have. She draws better boundaries with our four-year-old, Leigh. She worries more about safety and keeps me [...]

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Just me and baby

by Lyn October 18, 2009

My Dad’s mom passed away last week. It wasn’t necessarily unexpected and she lived a long and good life, but it was somewhat sudden. Gail and I decided it was a good idea for me to fly out all the way to the other coast with Ira to be with my dad during this time, [...]

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