My son might be gay and we live in a conservative town: where can I find resources for him?
Since he could ask for it, my son has asked to dress up in girl’s clothing — pink and frilly, pretty and shiny. It’s the only kind of clothing he gets excited about besides snazzy boy’s dress shirt. To him, all other clothing serves only to keep him from being totally naked. This is ok with me, aside from fighting my own society embedded fears that make my first instinct to keep it in the house only (which has been going well).
All the grandparents want to visit all the time! How do we manage long-distance family visits?
We live on the West Coast, and the grandparents (my in-laws, my mother, my father and my step mom) live in three different East Coast cities. My eight-month-old son is the ONLY grandchild on either side. The grandparents are (understandably!) enthusiastic and each set wants to visit every couple of months, which adds up to a LOT of travel and/or house guests.
Happy Fourth of July: let’s talk about how cool parades are
Happy Fourth of July to all the celebrating Americans out there! Today we thought it’d be fun to throw in a special parade-themed round-up filled with photos from families at parades all over the world. If you’re not American, not celebrating, or not into fireworks.. maybe you’ll like this!
What international adoption has meant for our family of three
My husband and I are nearing the end of a four-year-long adoption process. I met my daughter while volunteering in a children’s home in the summer of 2009, and we have been working through the red tape to get her here with us ever since. International adoption has its own unique joys and challenges. For my family, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Comparing polyamory to nigiri: Coming-out as polyamorous
Being polyamorous often involves a decision of when, or if, to come out. In my years of coming out as poly, I was surprised to find that making “I am poly and have two partners” come out of my mouth wasn’t the hardest part. And it’s not watching the person’s brain explode in reaction to my perceived fairy-floaty woo-woo liberal (in so many ways) relationship status. No, it gets tough when they respond.
My doula didn’t answer her phone but I had a good hospital delivery anyway
I enjoyed working with the doula and thinking about how I could “reframe” pain and manage my panic in labor (panic is a big thing for me). I also prepared “birth affirmations” and put them on index cards for the doula to read to me when I started to panic during labor. I also read a wonderful book called The Big Book of Birth that gave much information about labor both physiologically and psychologically.
How do I explain my sister’s polyamorous relationship to my kid?
My sister (who lives just a few miles away and is very involved in my life and the life of our large extended family) is part of an open polyamorous quad. All four individuals live together in the same house and one of the women (not my sister) is expecting a baby in the fall. Once baby arrives, I know that it will (and should) become apparent to my two oldest children that these people are more than roommates.
3 reasons why LeakyCon might be the king of all geek cons and considerations for the future
I mentioned LeakyCon a few weeks ago in a round-up of summer cons that would be great to take your teen to — and boy, was it ever. This was my first year experiencing the pure, unadulterated geek fest that is LeakyCon, and it didn’t disappoint. What began four years ago as a small meet-up of Harry Potter fans has blossomed into a series of days that are truly special. I started reading Harry Potter 14 years ago, and there was nothing like this back in the day. No way to easily connect with people over the internet (there was no Tumblr! Twitter! Not even Facebook!), no way of being able to share the serious feels I had about the series with others unless they were a) my friends and b) actually interested in the books. Basically, I spent a lot of time talking with my then nine-year-old brother about Harry Potter, because no one else I knew really cared.