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Posts Tagged ‘Children’

Dear Heterosexual Community: Your Kids Are Hurting, Part One

March 29th, 2015 Comments off

her scars are on the insideI am pleased to see that the community of natural marriage defenders is taking notice of kids in gay households:

Dear Gay Community: Your Kids Are Hurting

Wonderful! But what if I told you that it’s only a start?

Consider this: kids in gay households are often there due to a prior divorce and later remarriage, or a prior divorce and later cohabitation. These structural issues are not being adequately addressed within the larger context of same-sex marriage, and this has created a logical gap in our arguments.

Filling this gap is our opportunity to reach the younger generation.

Largely, the younger generation favors same-sex marriage. But if we addressed the family structure problems first created by heterosexuals, this may help us persuade the younger generation:

  • that we care about their family structure inequalities and the pain caused by them
  • that gay marriage adds to the structural inequalities children face
  • that we are being fair in our assessments–we’re targeting all adults who are the impetus of structural inequalities for children under their care.

Here is why I am hopeful about this line of thought. The author of the above post retracted her support of same-sex marriage because she realized something important: Read more…

What the Holy Father Said About Rabbits and Why

February 18th, 2015 Comments off

This article was first posted January 26, 2015, at National Catholic Register.

The recent news-cycle flap over Pope Francis and the bunnies has confused many people inside and outside of the Catholic Church.

Lots of people continue to be concerned that the Holy Father ought to be clearer in his manner of speaking. I would like to make something good out of this latest situation. Read more…

Ol’ What’s-His-Name

January 10th, 2015 Comments off

The night before Thanksgiving my sister took her daughter to New York City to watch the balloons being blown up for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. On the way to the city her four-year-old asked, “Mommy, do those balloons go all the way up to that ‘Church Guy?'”

“You mean God?”

“Yeah, him!”

Read more funny parenting stories here.

 

Does this caterpillar make me look fat?

December 31st, 2014 Comments off

A while back we got one of those butterfly growing kits that you start from caterpillars. There were the same number of caterpillars as members of the family, so the children named each one after us. I was a little distraught when I heard one child declare, “The big one is Mommy.” But I felt a little better later on when I heard one say, “The caterpillar with its head in the food is Daddy.”

Sounds like that caterpillar had a rough night.

Read more funny parenting stories.

Kids are funny

December 19th, 2014 Comments off

The girls were looking at their baby albums. My middle daughter, the most dramatic of the bunch by far, announced in a grandiose voice, “It’s time for the tale of the babies! Part One: Baby Gemma grows up!”

Also while looking at their pictures they saw their favorite stuffed animals when they were brand new. “Look how young Momma Bear and Ribbity are! Momma Bear was so fluffy back then.” I couldn’t help but laugh. They sounded like me when I look at pictures of my husband and myself from long ago. We were both much fluffier then.

Read more funny parenting stories.

Why conservatives must embrace “Children’s Equality”

December 18th, 2014 Comments off
The new inequality: childrens' needs vs. adults' desires

The new inequality: childrens’ needs vs. adults’ desires

I was talking to Dr. Morse yesterday, and asked her to think back to when she was a young girl in school. “How many kids were from divorced families?” I asked her. She said she could think of one. The rest lived with their married biological parents. Before the Sexual Revolution, there used to be an important and unrecognized equality among children: nearly every child lived with his/her married parents.

Let’s think for a moment about what the Sexual Revolution has done to equality from the child’s point of view. In the name of adult sexual liberation, we now have a tremendous amount of family/structural inequality among children. Some kids live with their married parents, and many do not:

  • Nearly 40% of births are out of wedlock
  • A majority of teens don’t live in intact families
  • One in three children live in single parent homes

Read more…

Parents say the darndest things

December 12th, 2014 Comments off

The other morning our son climbed in bed with us and asked my husband, “How come your armpits are so furry?”  My husband replied, “I ate a monster! When you get older you will eat a monster and get furry, too.” Then my son said, “Grandpa must have eaten a lot of monsters!”

Nicole, mother of 8

Read more funny parenting stories.

Rethinking the Blended Family

December 11th, 2014 Comments off

As somebody who was raised in multiple divorce/remarriage situations, the phrase “blended family” has always reminded me of a blender.  Yes, a literal blender, like this:

Read more…

As if there were any doubt…

December 5th, 2014 Comments off

More Proof that My Oldest Daughter is Truly My Child:

I was listening to one of my favorite songs when she wandered over and said, “I like this song. It attracted me the way an introductory paragraph should.”

Ah, my darling nerd. How I love you!

Read more funny parenting stories here.

 

 

Children of Divorce and the Holidays: a Stressful Time

December 2nd, 2014 Comments off

InequalityDo you know a child of divorce? Maybe you are divorced and you have children. Maybe you have a young relative or a young neighbor whose parents are divorced. Maybe your child has a friend whose parents are divorced. The holidays can be stressful and chaotic for a young person who must navigate between the two–often shockingly different–worlds of their parents. As a child of divorce myself, I thought it might be helpful to share some thoughts so that readers can understand what these children go through during the holidays.

Sometimes holiday stress can manifest in anger, combativeness, tears, sadness, stubbornness, withdrawal… all of which may seem inappropriate or unjustified to an untrained observer. People might wonder, “Why is this child acting out?”  If you know a child of divorce, please be sensitive to their feelings during the holidays. The holidays may serve as a magnifying glass as to how broken their family feels to them. For example, they might feel very divided. They might not know how to talk about the division they feel. Whether real or imagined, they might not feel like they have permission to talk about it. In point of fact, they might not have permission to talk about it.

Here are some situations that the child of divorce must navigate every holiday season: Read more…

Categories: Children, Divorce Tags: , ,