Bunchland

Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values

Here’s one to bring us down a notch. Just as last weeks’ Globe article told us lesbians are better parents than straight moms and dads, the New York Times ran a piece in their Lives section by writer Benjamin Anastas about growing up in early eighties suburbia with two lesbian moms.

It wasn’t pretty. Anastas’ older teenaged brother rebelled in a bad way and left home as soon as he could. Referring to his moms as pioneers, Anistas says: “We were pioneers, too, but only by proxy. We were not prepared for the savages behind the hedges and the front gates, their radar for what was different about our house.”  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. Are lesbian moms doing a better job of parenting their kids than straight families? Here’s what they’re doing right.

2. Speaking of lesbian moms raising kids that are all right, HBO is turning the Oscar-nominated movie into a TV series. It’ll be written by Lisa Cholodenko, but we doubt we’d be so lucky as to get Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. But will the TV show get right what the movie got wrong, namely, the “lesbian movie involving hot man-woman sex and yucky lesbian sex” part?

3. And those lesbian moms who moved to the suburbs 30 years ago? Pioneers.

4. Now that pioneer parents cleared the way, adoptions by gay and lesbian parents are up, way up.

5. And then there’s Florida, where “lesbian” is apparently a bad word. Oh, Florida.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. British working parents heap presents on their kids to alleviate their guilt at working long hours/going on business trips. The result: British kids way more materialistic than other European kids.

2. The Berenstein Bears have a show in Lakota. It’s the first animated show ever to be translated into a Native American language.

3. Gay kids can show gay tendencies as early as 3-years-old. Playing with dolls and breaking away from traditional gender behaviour might indicate that a boy grows up to be gay, but the same is not true of tom boys.

4. If you feed your kids raw milk, they are less likely to develop asthma and allergies. Pasteurized milk sucks to your assmar.

5. Madison, the internet’s favourite makeup artist, is all set for Halloween.

Photo by dccraftaholic128 via Flickr

What we’re reading today:

1. Stop lying to your kids! If they’re not doing great at something, don’t tell them they are.

2. Kate Winslet’s son, age 7, knows it’s OK if he grows up to be gay.

3. Preemies who need blood drawn show less pain when they’re being held by mom or dad, but especially mom.

4. Do you monitor the music your kids listen to? Do they sing along to Lady Gaga without actually knowing what she means by disco stick?

5. Harry Potter’s first press conference! Look how cute they are!!

Photo by EraPhrenalia Vintage via Flickr

Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values

I’m not going to preface this with the oldie but nasty, “I don’t have a problem with such and such people.” But some of my best friends are straight. Honest to goodness. But they’re not straight, straight. OK, they are. I’ll tell you though, sometimes my girls forget. Call my girl group a gay straight-alliance in the form of wine-soaked gab sessions.

No don’t. It’s more than that. And Saturday mornings-after are getting too rough, so there’s also an end to that.

Our cheeky gay nephew says that straight friends are like faithful pets. They follow you around, and you can trust them not to steal your partner. I wouldn’t call us that either. My girls trust each other. We check in. We think each and every one of us is great. We laugh more than we cry, but we definitely cry. Almost on cue.  Read more...

Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values

Today after work my partner will go in search of pink hair dye. She wants me to take the time to buy a new dress, like there is something wrong with worn out yoga pants. (There is a lot wrong with worn out yoga pants.) “It’s only once a year,” she tells me when I squawk: “No time! No time!”

Dyke Day is anon, and she wants our family to look good. (And she tells me, have fun.) Half of our family will. Guaranteed. The kids always look great. Hopefully we’ll all have fun.

The kids will be in super hero/fairy princess hats and pink capes. They’ll wave rainbow flags, and both will likely sing: “When I get older, I will be stronger …” on heart-breaking adorable repeat. We’re considering being dykes with tykes on bikes this year. Definitely, once we get there, we’ll search for friends and wonder why we didn’t consider a meet-up spot.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. If we tell little girls they’re pretty, will they start to think that their appearance is the most important thing?

2. Should you raise your kids to be nerdy? CNN’s LZ Granderson says society places too much importance on athletics and people are taught to look down on the smart kids. Instead, Granderson says we need to take academics a little more seriously.

3. Kids between the ages of 3-5 who watch scary and/or violent TV right before bed have trouble sleeping. (So do we!)

4. Mombian is proud of LGBT parents and the kids of LGBT parents. It’s been a pretty great year for inspiring kids and stories and bringing conversation about queer families into the mainstream. Let’s keep it up! Happy Pride!

5. Candy is good for you. Kind of. Like, don’t eat Twizzlers for dinner or anything, but treats are OK.  Read more...