However you choose to celebrate (or not) this day, may it be a joyous one for you and your family. May we also not forget that the first proclamation of Mother’s Day in the United States, by Julia Ward Howe, was a call for peace and disarmament, urging all women to take up the cause. […]
I was feeling a little butch and a little femme yesterday: Morning: Built forklift for son using wardrobe box, duct tape, and box cutter. I had promised to make him cool things out of boxes after we moved, thinking of houses and castles. He of course decided to test my skills with something more challenging.
A few recent articles about LGBT families for you to peruse: “Gay Man Reflects on Struggle to Become a Father,” by Nick Grabbe in the Amherst Bulletin, is the story of David Jean and Don Babets, “pioneers in the struggle for equal adoption rights for gay and lesbian couples” in Massachusetts. “No Such Thing as
Moms Rising, the organization dedicated to building a “family-friendly America” through better employment rights and benefits for parents, is promoting a bevy of activities for Mother’s Day weekend. I’ve written before about Moms Rising, and noted the similarities between the parents-rights movement and the LGBT rights movement: Parents’-rights groups are working to change the playing
This image by Jessica Hagy at Indexed says it all. (Thanks to W. for the tip.)
In one of the more interesting recent cases involving same-sex parents, a Pennsylvania appellate court ruled that a lesbian couple’s known sperm donor must pay child support to the bio mom. The man was active in the couple’s life, and the two children he helped conceive called him “Papa,” according to an article in the
I may be the last person in the country to discover the wonders of a safety can opener, which takes off the top of cans without leaving a sharp rim. It was always a point of pride with me that I used a simple Swing-A-Way opener. The Swing-A-Way was classic. It did the job it
It’s important to keep things in perspective. Much as we rightly criticize the U.S. for its less-than ideal policies towards parents and children, especially LGBT ones, we generally do all right here in the developed world. The humanitarian organization Save the Children today released its eighth annual Mothers’ Index, ranking the best and worst places
Many months ago, I agreed in a caffeine-fueled haze to write for an upcoming parenting Web site, Offsprung. Today the site launches. Offsprung isn’t your mother’s parenting Web site, however. Instead, it’s a humor magazine designed to eviscerate the excesses of modern parenting culture. It’s offbeat, in your face, and irreverent. If you don’t like
From the “but we knew that” department: A study commissioned by the Canadian government back in 2003 has concluded that “children living with two mothers and children living with a mother and father have the same levels and qualities of social competence.” The study, based on “empirical literature,” also noted: “A few studies suggest that
