Category Archive

People

“Homeowner”, “renter” or “squatter” – whatever the label, these occupants take the Offbeat wherever they go.

Teaching my kid about God as an ex-fundamentalist

“But Mama, what IS God?” Shit. I’m really not prepared for this conversation. For the majority of my life, I envisioned a future where this conversation with my kid would be welcome, and the answer given would be clear and certain. But the last half-decade has changed all that…

What should you get for a parent adopting an older child?

A friend is adopting three older children (ages 6, 7, and 11) out of foster care very soon. I’d really like to throw a shower of some sort for her, or at least arrange for some sort of group gift from our co-workers and mutual friends. But what should you get for a parent adopting an older child?

How can I help my partner learn to be body-positive?

>My partner has always been conventionally attractive. For a number of reasons, his recently body changes are resulting in a difficulty with self-esteem. How can I help my partner learn to be body-positive toward this new and unfamiliar body?

Why I’m just not into babies (and I’ve got one!)

I am blessed to have a beautiful, healthy 18 month old daughter whom I love to the ends of the earth, and I show her a lot of love and affection. But I’m just not into being a mum with a baby. Any other parents feel a similarly? I’d love to hear from those who may understand where I’m coming from.

My thoughts about donating eggs changed now that I’M a mom

No part of me regrets the decision I made to be an egg donor, but I regret how I went about it. I did not understand the gravity of my decisions; I believed I was mature and now I look back and feel like I was just a kid. And now there is a little boy out there that is my kids’ half-brother that they may never meet.

I’m an autistic woman married to a neuro-typical man: Here’s how we make it work

One of the biggest fears I see that autistic people or parents of autistic children have is that they’ll never be able to have a romantic relationship.

I’m here to dispel that myth by sharing how my marriage works. I’m married to a neuro-typical (“normal”) husband with no psychological issues whatsoever, and no prior experience at all in dealing with people with psychological problems.

On good looks, ugliness, image, and what we teach our kids…

“We talk about body shape, size and weight, but rarely about distorted features. And we talk about plainness, but not faces that would make a surgeon’s fingers itch.

“The Ugly Duckling” is widely assumed to be the story of his own life. But the moral of that story was that a swan would emerge from the body of an outcast, and that you could not repress the nobility of a swan in a crowd of common ducks.

What if you just stay a duck?”

What’s the etiquette on taking a baby to an all ages show?

The types of show I’m used to attending are generally held in much smaller indoor venues, like bars and church basements. So far as the kid is concerned, as long as he’s riding in the baby carrier with ear muffs on, I think he’ll do just fine. I’m more worried that we’d be crossing some social line with the other concert goers…