My aunt adopted my daughter: how I birthed my niece
In early 2008, I realized I was pregnant. Now to an outside observer it would seem a rather obvious outcome. I had just engaged in my first act of sexual intercourse, we didn’t use protection and I had no idea where I was on my cycle. I was 23 and had just started my second semester of college.
We’re thinking about creating a family name — how can we avoid losing our heritage in the process?
My partner and I are thinking about coming up with an entirely new last name for our family — one that isn’t attached to either family in any way. I only have one reservation: names often have a long history attached, and it’s likely we’d want to share this history with our future kids.
Pondering the challenges faced by queer families traveling internationally
My partner Jack and I had been excited about planning a family trip to Belize — we found a great VRBO cottage and fabulous flights. We were all ready when Jack asked, “Do we know if they like ‘our kid’ in Belize?” As in: are they ok with queers?
OMG I’m becoming my parents: when it’s not a bad thing
Raise your hands if you’ve ever said something and then realized *gasp* I sound just like my [parental unit]! Are there ways in which you resemble your parents… and that’s actually a good thing? Get into the conversation over on Offbeat Families.
This shouldn’t be so weird and scary: thoughts on miscarriage
Imaginary woman, you are part of a long line of women who have been through this. You are not alone. I hope you have friends who will talk to you about even the ickiest parts. But even if you don’t, or even if they’re all asleep right now, you’re not alone.
Dyeing baby clothes (not so successfully)
I’m pregnant, and recently discovered that looking for offbeat baby clothes isn’t exactly an inexpensive hobby. Since I’ve been DIYing up a storm lately (did you see this recovered baby jumper?), I decided to try my hand at dying clothing! I contemplated using machine dye, but was worried it might stain our new washing machine… so I went with warm water hand dye. All of the items I dyed came from a consignment sale, so were cheap but not exactly to my style taste.
Open thread: do you ever catch yourself turning into one of your parents and like it?
I spent a lot of time as a teenager wondering if my mom was really happy. How could she be, I wondered, working a thankless job as a teacher, married to a man who worked incessantly, and dealing with two kids who were hell? She never stopped moving — she would wake up at 4AM to work out before her day began, and then go through her daily motions. How could anyone be happy with that?
Why I’m not letting tragedies stop me from having kids
My thoughts turned to my friend at work who had given birth that day, and her baby who would always share a birthday with this tragedy. I thought of my other friend who is planning on welcoming twins into this world in October and taking the rest of the school year off to be with them. I thought of my childhood best friend whose daughter is almost a year old. And I thought, I am so lucky to be childfree. How do you deal with questions from a young child about why and what happened when these tragedies inevitably take place? I wasn’t even sure what I would tell my high school students in class the next day.