In an earlier post, I described my attempt to introduce the topic of first moms to my three-year-old. Somewhere along the line, he started to understand that he has two dad and two moms. He even knows all of our names. Of course, I’m sure he doesn’t really understand why he’s in this situation, but at least it’s a start.
Over the weekend, we were at my brother and sister-in-law’s house for a visit and I asked BC to say J’s name, because he has this strange way of pronouncing it. I wanted my in-laws to hear how funny it was. So I said, “what’s your dad’s name, BC?” Instead of responding with J’s name, he gave his first father’s name. I responded, “yes, that’s your first dad, but what’s your other dad’s name?”
Then this week, BC started asking me if he could talk to his first father on the phone. This isn’t at all unusual because BC loves to talk on the phone and is always asking me to call people. So I told him that I didn’t have his first dad’s phone number. Naturally this started a whole conversation about why I didn’t have it and the location of his first dad. All I could tell him was that I didn’t know.
It’s sad that we have to have these conversations, but I’m glad that we have an opportunity to talk about it. I want BC to be used to hearing about these things so that the explanation will (hopefully) be easier when he’s old enough to understand.
Shannon Mackie 