My son the cross-dresser
My son is big into tractors. He loves Lego. He builds skyscrapers out of wooden blocks, and then goes all Godzilla on them. He plays in the mud, and looks for bugs, and has a thing for dinosaurs. And on the first day of gan (preschool) last week, my son told me he wanted to wear a dress.
There’s a teenager in my house and he’s probably cooler than I am
I don’t know how or when he got here, but his voice is low, the top portion of his underwear is permanently visible, and he feels very strongly that Justin Bieber’s version of The Christmas Song should be played all year round.
Planned Parenting: how I found a childless community with my LGBT friends
For two-and-a-half years I walked through life like a ghost, waiting for my baby. Then I discovered I could not conceive a child with my partner. Suddenly, that hope and suspense was gone. A simple biological fact I had assumed was my birthright vaporized before my eyes. One day I was kvetching to my best friend — who is gay — about this shocking news, and he stopped me and said. “Listen: this is new to you, but it’s not new to me. So don’t you walk in my door talking about doom and gloom. You have to understand, this is just our life. It’s been our life, and now it’s yours, too.
Infants Abroad: tips for taking your baby to Europe
My husband and I had already been planning our belated honeymoon to Ireland when we learned I was pregnant. We thought about it briefly, and decided to go anyway. I had been to Europe before; I had taken care of babies before. How hard could this be?
Choosing non-white-dominant art for kids
Once our daughter is born, I assume she’ll be some mash-up of the two of us, although the more brown-and-white mixed kids I see, the more I wonder if our little monster will be identifiably brown at all. I always thought of my genetic heritage as weak, non-fat milky white DNA that would easily be overwhelmed by a good infusion of cocoa. I’m beginning to suspect that my mixed Scottish/Slavic heritage is heartier than it lets on.
How can I explain where my deceased daughter is to our future children without bringing up religion?
Our first child passed away at five months of age due to cancer. Just because she is no longer physically with us does not mean that she is not in our everyday life. How can I make the afterlife a non-scary place for a child without the clouds and harps?
7 ways we’re saving money for daycare
I’d heard all of these rumors about children being expensive, but I didn’t really believe them. We’d been parents for nearly a year and managed just fine with a limited amount of penny squeezing thanks to the extra money I’d saved while we were pregnant to allow for extra cash during my maternity leave — and then the sucker punch came. We realized just how much daycare is going to cost us for infant category twins, and I’ll just say this: it’s a LOT.
How do you decide when to tell your kid about your personality disorder(s)?
My fiance and I are planning on having children in the near future. He has ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, and Dissociative Identity Disorder — multiple personalities if you will. Right now, it’s just me, him, and my sister who know. We’re wondering: how do we tell our future kids?