Review by Katherine

Breastfeeding your baby in bed or helping your toddler develop their autonomy may not seem like a political act, but according to Robin Grille, it may be one of the most important things you do to shape the future of society. In his Parenting for a Peaceful World, the Sydney psychologist argues that until we collectively parent children more empathically, war and unbridled consumption will continue to wreak havoc in our world.

The book starts off with a history of childhood which is hard to read as it recounts several hundreds of years of brutality and abuse. It’s not necessary to read these chapters in their entirety to get the message that up until about 50 years ago, it just plain sucked to be a kid. And still does in some parts of the world. If you managed to live to adulthood, you were deeply scarred by the experience, eager to brutalise others and ready to inflict the same torture on the next generation of children.

Grille uses this history to support his argument that the harsher children are treated the more violent and brutal the society they form as adults. He gives some specific examples such as Yugoslavia, Russia and Nazi Germany. While I’m open to this as being true, I think the evidence Grille provides would be unconvincing to those less open to the idea.

He extends this idea even further in the part of the book that I think some people would find challenging, where he describes the predominant style of parenting today as the socialising mode.

The socialising mode of parenting emphasises the need to train the child to behave in socially acceptable ways. Grille is critical of this approach because it ignores the needs of children in favour of the convenience and expectations of adults. Rewards and punishment are the mainstay of this parenting mode, and Grille is clearly against these techniques, including the good old star charts and ‘time out’. Another popular parenting technique he targets is controlled crying which he explains works because babies eventually become numb to the pain of not being responded to.

Perhaps his most provocative suggestion is that current common parenting methods such as these, which manipulate the child to behave in ways convenient to adults, create adults who are susceptible to manipulation and easy prey for the consumerist machinery of today’s society.

Grille’s alternative to the socialising mode is the helping mode of parenting which focusses, not on getting children to behave a certain way, but on empathy and open communication with them, responding appropriately to their needs, and having faith that they will grow into thoughtful, considerate human beings all of their own accord. In order to achieve this, however, he points out that it’s not only parents that need to have this focus, but all of us, extended family, child carers, teachers and politicians included.

As Grille himself warns, this is not a parenting book as such. It gives no detailed advice about sleeping, crying, feeding, playing etc which you would normally expect to find. In some ways, it’s more useful than a parenting book because it gives you some principles. Remember the principles, and you will intuitively know what’s best to do for your children.

Those looking for more practical parenting advice could try his second book, Heart to Heart Parenting. I haven’t read it – it’s on my list, and I’ll be interested to see how useful it is.

With a one-year old son, I have only started the parenting journey. My partner and I have implemented most of Grille’s suggestions so far and intend to continue to do so, because they appeal to us and they appear to be supported by evidence. I’ll get back to you in about 20 years time to let you know the outcome.

(Parenting for a Peaceful world is available from ABC shops and Mothersdirect)

Van Reyk suggests five categories of gay father involvement in their offspring:

Step-parenting (co-parenting a child that your partner brought to your relationship); co-fathers (planning and creating a child with a partner); known donors (biological fathers through donor insemination who have little involvement with their offspring); donor dads (biological fathers who have regular contact with their offspring, but limited responsibility and obligations); and co-parenting (biological fathers who are very involved with their children and share responsibility for childraising).

As you can imagine, problems arise when one party assumes they are in one category, and other the party is expecting a different category of involvement. The mothers think they’ve contracted a ‘known donor’, but he thinks he’s a ‘donor dad’. Before the reality of a child, people can also misjudge what category of parenting would suit them. I assumed I’d love a co-parent, imagining someone who’d swan in every second weekend and take the child off for a night. Elisabeth wanted an anonymous donor, but we compromised with a known donor with no parental responsibilities. Now, I can’t even let grandma babysit them! So I’m very glad Elisabeth talked me out of my postmodern idyll.

We saw our donor Harry and his boyfriend Morgan this week. Elisabeth and I have been discussing how we are going to represent Harry to Pearl and Louis. We don’t see him as a ‘dad’, as that has so many social meanings that aren’t appropriate to our situation, but we don’t want the kids calling him ‘sperm donor’ – it seems too clinical (and how much do we want our kids tossing about the word ‘sperm’ in the playground?). ‘Dad’ as a concept is popping up in their story books, and of course they have many friends who have dads, as well as having many friends who don’t. So we’ve settled on ‘donor dad’, although in our minds, Harry’s (and Morgan’s) role is more that of an uncle. Harry chuckled a little uncomfortably when we talked to him about it – I don’t think he’d thought about wearing the label ‘dad’ in any form. From the perspective of Pearl and Louis, I think it’s going to be important to have a person to put in the ‘dad’ category, and then they can decide how to conceptualise that relationship for themselves.

Morgan’s young brother (early teens) has been asking Harry questions about the children. ‘What do you call your relationship with your kids?’ he wanted to know, so we talked about that one as well. I suggested ‘donor kids’, as in, Pearl and Louis are my donor kids. It sounds sort of friendly and not too clinical and there is a strong sense of relationship there.

On Essential Baby (you can only get in if you’re a member) there’s a thread on lesbian parents and donor sperm at the moment. Mostly, people are wondering about how to represent donor half-siblings. Some people are surprised and hurt to discover there are donor siblings, and feel they need to maintain the integrity of their own nuclear family. Others are seeing it as a chance to establish and embrace an extended family. (See Meet Deanna, Sue & Noah for an amazing story of responding to discoveries of donor siblings). Our donor has another child to Agnes, who lives in England. Liam is two years older than Louis and Pearl. Possibly because they live overseas, we haven’t found this at all confusing or threatening – we just tell our kids that Harry has been a donor for two families. We mothers all feel that it’s important for the children to know each other and to work out for themselves what their relationship will be. I conceptualise it as a kind of cousin relationship – we send him Christmas and birthday presents, and we video chat about once a month. It also helps that we really like Agnes and would want to be friends with her anyway.

It’s interesting and challenging to be making our way through linguistically uncharted territory. I think the most important things for our kids is to come up with some describing words so they have a way of storying their experience; and to be truthful right from the start. The more they hear their own story, and similar stories, from the womb, the more easily they’ll represent themselves to others and move confidently through a world that doesn’t often reflect their reality.

At present, my immediate family comprises my boyfriend, Morgan, and me.

We are then surrounded by a few extended families around us, including Morgan’s and my birth families, my two donor families, and our gang of close gay friends.

My concept of family extends beyond blood line.

Where do you live?

In a gay friendly (well, as friendly as you could get) inner city suburb 5 minutes away from the Brisbane CBD.

How did you create your family?

I put my name down on an on-line donor registry and was contacted by my donor families.  The rest was history!

Do you have a relationship with the families you have helped create?

I was quite flexible in terms of my future involvement when I started negotiating with my donor families and I was fortunate enough that both families asked me to act as an uncle of sorts in the kids’ lives.

With Agnes and Liam (3 year old), we stay in touch via email because they live in Northern England due to Andrea’s work.

It is much easier to stay in touch with Molly, Elisabeth, and the twins (Pearl and Louis) as they only live a few suburbs away.  Even so, we probably do not get together as frequently as we like due to other commitments in our lives but when we do get together, we share a cordial relationship.  The twins seem to like us as well – probably because we are big kids ourselves and they could sense that.

Give us three words to describe each member of the family

From my vantage point:

Harry: stable, meticulous, responsible

Morgan: warm, endearing, sensitive

Agnes: calm, zen, academic

Liam: outgoing, energetic, independent

Elisabeth: composed, measured, tenacious

Molly: intellectual, passionate, visionary

Pearl: happy, cheerful, attention seeking

Louis: introverted, self-sufficient, sensitive

Why did you decide to become a donor?

I think it is generally not as easy for gay people to start a family and I want to help those who do. Also, it would have been good to leave a little of myself behind.

How did you meet the people you donated to?

Through an on-line donor registry.

Why did you decide on the people you ultimately donated to?

I tend to rely on my intuition in making important decisions.  Apart from the practical ‘selection criteria’, Agnes, Janice (Agnes’ partner at the time), Molly, and Elisabeth simply ‘felt right’.  They all came across very nurturing and ready to start a family.

Were there any times you felt it was too hard, or you felt like giving up, or it was inconvenient?

It was relatively easy with Agnes because she fell pregnant after our first trial.  She had to fly all the way from Japan to Brisbane, so if anything, it was a tremendous inconvenience for Agnes.

When Elisabeth fell pregnant and later suffered a miscarriage, it got a bit demoralising for everyone but I can honestly say I never felt like I wanted to give up.  If anything, I was more determined to keep trying.  Yes, there were inconvenient moments but they paled in comparison with the bigger purpose we were all collectively trying to achieve.

What impact has this journey had on your relationship with your partner?

It was actually quite a bonding experience.  Morgan absolutely adores the kids and absolutely feels like he is one of their uncles, so it is nice to share the journey with him.

Anything about being a ‘donor dad’ you didn’t expect?

I did not have too many expectations, which means that there have not been too many surprises to date.  I guess the only thing I did not really expect was the friendship formed between Agnes, Molly, and Elisabeth.  For some reason, I never expected the mummies to become friends with each other but they all seem keen on maintaining the relationship, for the kids and in their own right, which is a bonus for me.  It has been fantastic to see our rainbow family develop and grow.  After all, in many ways, we are charting new territory and it is great to see our model working out so well.

If you started all over again, is there anything you would do differently?

No.  I think all the decisions I made and the approach I ultimately adopted were products of necessity. Also, given that there has not been any unforeseeable and unpleasant surprises to date, there is nothing to make me think I should have done things differently.

How do you feel about having children of your own?

In some ways, contributing to the birth of the three children has satisfied my paternal urge, so much so that I don’t currently feel I need to have children of our own, unless Morgan really wants children in future.  At this particular point of my life, I do not feel as though I would miss out on anything if I do not ever have children of my own.

How have your extended families responded to the creation of your family?

My own family do not know about the children because they are still having trouble understanding and accepting me being gay.

Morgan’s family is very accepting.  His mum in particular even said that she felt like a grandma of sorts.

My close group of gay friends whom I would consider as a part of my extended family are also very supportive and proud of what I have done.  Many have expressed a fair degree of curiosity and may even follow my lead to create their own rainbow families in future.

How do friends (gay or straight) respond when they find out you are a donor?

I have been fortunate in that all the reactions have been positive to date.  The only comment that has featured a few times, which may be interpreted as less positive, is that some people expressed the view that they would never be able to help create children but are not actively involved in bringing them up.   But I guess people are different.

How do you explain your family if outsiders ask?

The truth – I helped in creating a family for two lesbian couples and I more or less assume the role of an uncle in the kids’ lives.

Have you experienced any difficulties or inconveniences because of being a donor dad?

Not to date. The only ‘difficulty’ has been, in a few odd occasions, when people tried to refer to the kids but couldn’t find the right term to describe them in the context of their relationship to me.  We struggled over terms such as  ‘surrogate’, ‘donor’, ‘donee, etc, but I am sure we would bed this issue down in time.

How do you maintain good relationships with the mothers?

Be sensitive and mindful that they are the kids’ mothers and try not to cross the boundaries and intrude into their nuclear family.  Other than that, I don’t think maintaining a good relationship with the mothers is any different from maintaining a good relationship with other people.

Do you have any legal or written agreements?

We all signed a written parenting agreement before we started our arrangements. While the agreement does not currently carry the force of law, in our view, it is a good idea to formalise it because, legally or otherwise, the agreement articulates and evidences everyone’s intentions.

What supports (rainbow or straight) do you recommend?

A close group of friends and extended families around everyone in the rainbow family.

How do you model pride in rainbow families to your child/ren?

Not sure how to answer this one since our contact with the children is currently limited and they are too young to understand.  In future, I think we can reinforce what the mothers have instilled in the children – a consistent message is probably the best approach.

What advice would you give someone planning to donate?

Make sure everyone’s intentions are clearly articulated from the start, so that there wouldn’t be surprises later on.  Even if there are uncertainties that are dependent on future developments (eg, the donor not being sure about how he would feel about the children once they are born), these should be discussed and vetted, so that all the parties are aware of those possibilities and therefore decide if they could live with the possibilities if and when they materialise.

Further, I think as a donor, we need to respect the fact that the mothers and the children constitute the nuclear family.  Therefore, boundaries must be respected and the primary obligation of parenting should be left to the mothers, unless it has been agreed otherwise from the start.

What advice would you give to mothers looking for a donor?

Be very clear on what they look for in the donor.  Make a list of ‘selection criteria’ and evaluate the prospective donors against the list. There may need to be compromises, depending on the availability of donors at the time but ensure that the key requirements are not compromised (eg, the desired level of involvement of the donor).

Take time to get to know the donor and in a comfortable and sociable environment – observe the donor for qualities such as emotional stability, reliability, etc.  Reciprocally, look out for qualities that may ring alarm bells (eg, indecisiveness, unreliability), which could put the arrangement in jeopardy in future.

What has being a donor added to your life?

Being a donor has added a new and rich dimension to my life.  As a gay man, chances are I may never have a conventional hetero-normative family of my own. Being a part of a rainbow family has filled that gap and I look forward to all of our future together.

We stayed with Grandpa in Melbourne and really enjoyed exploring that city from a child’s perspective. My favourite day was the one we spent at Abbotsford Convent and the Collingwood Children’s Farm, and  Elisabeth was really taken by the restored antique carousel at the end of the pier at Eastern Beach in Geelong. We also had a lovely moment at a playground in Williamstown when a random dad, after chatting to us via our kids, said, “So you’re two mums?” His relaxed manner was such a testament to all the amazing work the Rainbow Families Council has done in Melbourne over the years. Everyone I’ve encountered in Brisbane has been absolutely fine, too, but he sounded so…blase.

I’m planning some changes around here, both in appearance and content.  I’d like to keep it going, and I need to make it sustainable for me to manage. So I’m going to cut back to two posts a week for a while (until I pull together a regular posse of contributors) – one article and one ‘Meet rainbow families’. Let me know if you’ve got any comments on how it is unfolding – like most bloggers, I love to get messages from the ether!

To kick off 2010, Mel from Rainbow Garden talks about home schooling her kids.

Home Education

by Mel

It’s a scary concept for some and a very liberating one for others. But what exactly is it?

Let me start by telling you what it isn’t.

Home Education is not locking your children away from society so they grow up social recluses who duck behind a bush every time they see a ‘stranger’.

Home Education is not depriving your children of valuable social opportunities – you know the sort of opportunities I mean – interacting with all members of society, from all walks of life, spanning all age groups.

Home Education is not indoctrinating your children with your belief system so they grow up mindless drones (I know, because I tried – it didn’t work.)

Home Education is not going to make your child grow up to be uneducated or unemployable.

Home Education is not something that can only be undertaken by trained professionals (I know this one too – because my kids are WAAYYY smarter than me!)

Home Education IS a rich, rewarding experience for both parent and child. It forms strong family bonds which they will need all their lives. It allows children to follow their own interests. It can be tailored to the needs of each individual child. Home Education can be delivered in so many different ways – from ‘school at home’ to complete ‘unschooling’ and everything in between. Home Education protects our kids from the more unsavoury aspects of school life. For instance, if bullying is such a good character building experience for kids, why are there programs (albeit failing ones) in place to try and combat it?

Education is not a sacred art that can only be imparted to others once you’ve spent four years in university. Education happens every day of your life and you can be taught things by a two year old or a 92 year old! You don’t have to have a high IQ or be an expert in any field. Let me tell you a little secret – kids learn in SPITE of us, not BECAUSE of us. We can provide fun activities and make sure we take our kids to all the homeschool meet-ups. We can provide them with the best and most expensive curriculum, but at the end of the day it is the kids that do all the work and learn what interests them and ignore what bores them.

Have you thought about schooling for your kids? what are you doing or planning to do?

Enjoy your silly season,  regardless of how you choose to celebrate your wonderful rainbow family.

I felt a little boring as I haven’t had any negative experiences from health service providers, although obviously it’s important for researchers to hear positive stories as well. Elisabeth and I have only had respectful, delightful interactions with the doctors, nurses, obstetricians, lactation consultants, dermatologists, opthalmologists and paediatricians with whom we have had interactions so far. If anything – and I presume it’s just part of the comforting patter – they tend to go in the other direction and enthuse about how wonderful it must be for our children to have two mothers.

I don’t know if this is the case for everyone, so I’ll be interested to see the results of the study. We are educated, assertive, middle class women. We live in a capital city. We have the resources to shop around if we feel we are not getting good services. And we are quite confident in our sexuality and our parenting – we’re not closeted and we don’t feel we are compromising our children by bringing them into a family with two mothers, so we are not open to being made to feel guilty by other parties.

It’s a snowball (ie word of mouth) sampling method, so if you’re willing to be interviewed, you can contact Rose Chapman: R.Chapman(at)email.curtin.edu.au

Between visiting family in Melbourne and a group holiday with other lesbian families on the Sunshine Coast, I’m away for the next couple of weeks. For your holiday reading, I’m going to cut and paste other great posts I find around the net.

Here’s an oldie but a goodie, from US site Mombian.

(edited to add: I’ve been informed by Mombian that this post is copyright -something I hadn’t considered! So I’ve taken it down but left the link if you want to check it out)

How to respond when meeting lesbian mums (or Moms, as Dana says)

Who’s in your family?
Our immediate family is made up of me (Sonja), Rosie (8) and Ari (1). Then there are our fairy godparent and biological families. The biological one is quite conventional (and a bit conservative with some Christian-right elements) but the fairy family more than compensates! They are a whole bunch of friends (and Ari’s donor and his boyfriend) who have a ‘special’ relationship with me and the kids.

Where do you live?
Foothills of Adelaide.

How did you create your family?
Rosie was conceived in an unsuccessful attempt at a straight relationship. She still spends around half her time at her dad’s house. Ari was conceived with the help of a very old gay friend… and an intimate relationship with a collection of syringes.

Do you have a relationship with your donors?

Ari’s donor and his boyfriend come over for dinner most weeks. They adore both the kids (something I never fail to point out when people ask about ‘biological’ attachment). When Ari gets a bit bigger he may wish to call his donor ‘dad’, and I think that’ll probably be OK with me although I was initially very resistant to the heteronormative assumptions that word lugs around… In any case, donor ‘D’ has no legal and/or financial responsibilities… his job is just to love us all unconditionally ; )

Give us three words to describe each member of the family

Me – analytical, optimistic, self-scrutinising

Rosie – open-minded, imaginative, forthright

Ari – charming, curious, feisty

What’s the current favourite activity of each of your children?

Rosie – grinding up petals and rock dust to make fairy potions and dyes

Ari – inspecting the bolts and wheels on high chairs, prams etc. and/or climbing up and down steps, always resplendent in borrowed jewellery!

What’s your favourite thing to do together as a family?

Candle-lit aromatic bubble baths

What are some great kids’ activities where you live?

Beach, playing/walking/bike-riding in National Parks

How would you describe your parenting style?

Rational, flexible, compassionate… and, from time to time, stressed!

How do you feel being a ‘rainbow family’ influences your parenting?

We have many discussions about ‘difference’, equity, and perspective. Rosie is known to her peers as an activist… when they made ginger-bread houses for Christmas last year she boycotted because they were using Arnotts biscuits (palm oil) and Nestle smarties (third world distribution of infants formula). I had to do an emergency run to the shops in search of ethically produced Australian equivalents.

Single parenting is difficult. Have you found any issues particular to queer single parents?

Probably just the issue of being invisible (as Queer) and/or presumed straight. When I finally got pregnant it was almost a relief to have a casual excuse to out myself when people asked about the baby’s ‘dad’.

Anything about rainbow parenting you didn’t expect?

How much my latent activism would be piqued by the desire to protect my kids from homophobia and gender stereotypes

If you started all over again, is there anything you would do differently?

I’d rather not be dealing with ongoing family court sagas with Rosie’s dad. However, Buddhism has taught me lots of strategies for ‘letting go’… and probably I’m a better parent as a result.

How have your extended families responded to the creation of your family? How have you responded to that?

Now they love the baby to bits…. although I suspect they avoid explaining ‘where he came from’ to their kids. Though I try not to, I still resent that… I see it as passive homophobia. When the opportunity presents I daresay I will endeavour to be honest about who I am… whilst trying not to offend the kids’ Christian sensibilities.

How do you explain your family if outsiders ask? How do you respond when people assume heterosexuality?

Initially they didn’t understand why I wanted to have a second child and the way I wanted to go about it. I got involved in many extended conversations that justified my decision, even when I didn’t feel like I should have to explain. If I were in a straight relationship nobody would question my desire to have a  second child.

Being perceived to be straight is even more challenging to my own sense of identity. I’ve found myself getting dykey haircuts and wearing provocative t-shirts as a kind of compensation… but I’m also able to see how ironic this is! How can ‘passing’ as straight compare with the phenomenal threats to identity and huge scary decisions about visibility/invisibility that trans people have to make every day?

Have you experienced any difficulties as a rainbow family?

This has become even more complicated recently, since I’ve started ‘dating’ a trans guy. Even for this Queer readership I feel the need to explain – female to male. I have had several more nuanced and complex conversations about gender with Rosie… and also had to explain that, even though we see no issue, it’s possible that some other people may not ‘agree’. I’m struggling with this, because effectively I’m asking her to be ‘sometimes silent’… something I’ve come to hate.

Just the need to call attention to ourselves in order to have our existence recognised… even if it’s not validated with acceptance ; )

What supports (rainbow or straight) do you recommend?

Hanging out with other ‘pink parented’ families helps put things into context. I’ve often been surprised to note that, despite our many similarities, our differences as parents/kids/families are just as complex and numerous as any other small cross section of the wider community!

How do you model pride in rainbow families to your child/ren?

Talking about things openly at every available opportunity! Rosie recently took some treasures to school for show and tell. Part of her spiel was about acquiring them at the FEAST picnic… ‘that’s a celebration for Gay and Lesbian people’ she explained…

What advice would you give someone embarking on a rainbow parenting journey?

Be prepared to be challenged in ways you never expected to be! Embrace these opportunities as lessons in becoming better parents…

contact details

I’d love you all to check out our recently launched Queer Digital Storytelling site – Molly has a story there too! www.rainbowfamilytree.com And my very out of date but soon to be updated blog www.familyvalues.katalyst.com.au And business website, inhabited by my filmmaker incarnation www.incitestories.com.au

With the UN Climate Change Conference struggling along, I’ve been thinking, rather despairingly, that I’m misguiding my energy working towards my children’s parenting security  when I can’t even guarantee my children a planet to grow up in. That seems pretty basic. Elisabeth has just finished  the harrowing The Road by Cormac McCarthy and we’ve been wondering what we can do. It all seems so big.

J-le over at  The Twinkle in My Eye has also been giving this some attention. This is reposted from her blog, at  Greening the Twinkle’s Future

The things we could do more of:

saving water

• collect excess water from kitchen and bathroom sinks and bucket onto garden/indoor plant
• collect cold water from start of shower and bucket onto garden
• install rainwater tanks – large for whole roof, small for verandah
• collect more greywater and direct it onto the front (non-edible) garden
• use more greywater-friendly cleaning products
• plant more indigenous plants in front yard
• buy a front loader washing machine in the long run

saving gas

• put more clothes on before choosing to put heater on
• reduce draughts around windows and doors
• keep hot water service turned to fairly low temp
• consider double-glazing
• close vents not really needed (eg kitchen, bathroom in evenings)
• keep thermostat low-ish
• consider pelmets above windows
• cover bathroom fan
• put insulation in bathroom and laundry ceiling
• put insultation in walls when weatherboards are replaced

saving electricity

• be more vigilant about switching off lights
• find a replacement for halogen downlights
• switch appliances off at the wall
• turn computers off at night
• put in a smart switch for computers and maybe tv
• switch to buying green energy
• look at solar in the long term
• buying 5-6 star rating appliances (not in the near future – most of our whitegoods are new-ish)
• don’t use the dryer except for emergencies
• only use air-con on 40+ days if possible, and don’t set thermostat too low
• close all blinds on hot days
• install exterior blinds or other shade treatments
• use cross-ventilation on hot nights (find out out how to open top window on front door)

reducing waste

• be more vigilant about separating recyclables
• make the most of the worm farm and compost
• find the best solution for dog poo
• get a diva cup or similar
• toilet-train the twinkle
• get hankies instead of tissues
• use microfibre cleaning cloths
• consider rechargeable batteries
• buy less pre-packaged meat and veg
• buy less processed food in general
• find creative uses for rubbish and recyclables (eg toilet rolls as seedling tubes, softdrink bottles as mini greenhouses)

sustainable transport

• walk more!
• get the bikes serviced and get a seat for the twinkle
• investigate local produce to reduce food miles
• produce more food at home
• use public transport as much as possible

Some of Santa's favourite families have two mummies

Yesterday in Brisbane, Santa made time in his busy pre-Christmas schedule to drop in on the (second) annual rainbow families Christmas picnic.

There were about thirty families there; mostly mothers, but some grandmothers, donors and assorted ring-ins.

It’s a delight seeing my children respond to it from year to year – this year they were really engaged with the races, and quite excited about seeing Santa, although they didn’t know who he was or what he did – just that ‘Santa’ was something one was meant to get excited about.

At this time of year, difference from the mainstream is highlighted.  The representations are Mum, Dad and two or maybe three angelic blonde children. Hale and hearty grandparents who are clearly still married to each other look on adoringly- no messy running between divorced grandparents between breakfast and dinner.

Pearl gives Santa a careful once-over

From the marketing, I would assume that stepfamilies, separated families, single parent families, people with disabilities, non-Anglo families and gay families don’t celebrate Christmas.

It seemed important to me to start up a Rainbow Families Christmas Picnic. As my children get older and understand more, Christmas will become more and more heteronormative.   Advertising that convincingly reproduces gender stereotypes. Mr & Mrs Claus. Years and years of soppy Christmas special movies yet to come! We’re all gathering to celebrate the quintessential nuclear family – the Virgin Ideal Mother Mary, the macho, protective, strong silent Joseph, and the perfect baby Jesus, ‘no crying he makes’ (how did they know when to change his nappy?). I want my kids to have a moment where they can stop and say, ‘Look, here are a whole bunch of families like mine, all celebrating Christmas’.

Ready...Set...GO!!

Do you feel a need to queer Christmas? How do you make Christmas an event that includes our children? That celebrates families – all families? At the time  of year when family is exalted to ridiculous, unsustainable heights, how do we deal with our messy networks of relationships? Or are you happy to accept Christmas for the odd hybrid of sanitised religiosity and rabid consumerism  it offers?

Radical Christians suggest that Jesus himself lived in an unconventional family as an adult – living unmarried with Lazarus, Martha & Mary would have been highly scandalous at the time.

Jesus had two dads, and look how he turned out!

Santa takes a break with Mrs Claus