Dads Parent Too

JER: What does it mean to be a "man"?  What does it mean to be a "woman"?  What attributes do you associate with being "masculine", "feminine", or in between?  This topic is important to me personally, because I spent the majority of my life confused why I didn't relate to most other men (I discussed that here:  "Not Transgender, but not Don Juan or Hulk Hogan either" ). How do I create a space for my children to figure out what it means to be "girls", "women", "feminine", "masculine", in between, or something else?  After a lot of thought, this is the explanation I expect to give to my daughters when they ask about it (perhaps when they are around 8, who knows). "Biological sex' is experienced by the majority of the population as what genitalia a person has at birth, where most males have a penis, most females have a vagina (like you), and there are some (a proportionally sma...

Sometimes my 19-month-old just wants to be held.  Sometimes I have to get a pork shoulder in the oven.  When both of these things coincide, then I have to find a distraction that will buy me enough time to get something done. Two large bowls, one cup, one small bowl, and some water makes my daughter really happy.  The resulting mess was worth the 30 minutes of distraction.  But do yourself a favor, and put a towel underneath the bowls to keep them from sliding and aid in the clean-up.