From the category archives:

Parenting

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 [...]

12 comments Read the full article →

Do you love them differently?

by Lyn August 28, 2011

On Gail’s post a while back about what we call ourselves as parents (and in what contexts), Chris, whose partner is perhaps soon trying to conceive another child for their family, asked “I am very worried I will not (love) this child as much as mine. I worry I won’t treat them equally. Hetero women [...]

16 comments Read the full article →

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 [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

“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 [...]

17 comments Read the full article →

Talking to kids about reproduction

by Lyn June 2, 2011
Thumbnail image for Talking to kids about reproduction

[NOTE: It was blogging for lgbt families day yesterday! Finally, after about three years, we actually managed a post on a day vaguely near the day itself and this seems like a worthy contribution so I'm going with it. Check out lots of other great posts here, and many thanks to Mombian for rounding everyone [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Under the Bus

by Lyn February 28, 2011

Several months ago, I was home with Leigh and Ira, and they were roughhousing. There are a few more glimpses these days of them actually playing together for real, but at that point, any “play” involved one of them tackling the other. They were going at it, Leigh fell back on top of Ira, and [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

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 [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Worry about weaning

by Lyn June 29, 2010

I have a super power. I can worry, full throttle, about two completely contradictory things at the same time.  I’ll illustrate with a current example: As soon as Ira turned one, I began to worry that I was nursing him both for too long, and too short. Apparently my definition of “too long” was any [...]

9 comments Read the full article →

Nighttime Parenting Guilt

by Gail June 20, 2010
Thumbnail image for Nighttime Parenting Guilt

Lyn and I have had a large number of different nighttime parenting arrangements. When I was still nursing Ira (and he was still waking up about ten million times a night), we traded full nights, each taking every other night. These days (now that Ira sleeps in until 4 or 5am, ugh), I’m officially “on” [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

A lesson I want to learn

by Lyn April 29, 2010

When we meet other parents (straight), if it happens to come up in conversation that each of us carried one of our children, the relatively consistent response is approximately “What a great idea!” or “I wish we could do that!” Members of two-mom families, who understand the work and luck it takes to get pregnant [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Free to Be

by Gail March 15, 2010

When I was a kid, I loved Free to Be, You and Me, that fabulous Marlo Thomas extravaganza of the 70′s. I had most songs, stories, and dialogues memorized. I never really thought much about the messages, but loved all of the stories and songs. I loved singing along with “It’s alright to cry” and [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries