9. There will never not be laundry.

If you’re a parent, you know how hard it is to get a kid to go to sleep when they don’t want to. I truly wish I could tell you it gets easier, but I don’t like to lie.

To me, the concept of anyone being “first” in a family feels weird. We all have a hierarchy of needs, right?

We live in a time when the “traditional” nuclear family isn’t necessarily the default family structure anymore. But beyond that, not all queer families are made the same way either.

I was able to teach my son the un-whitewashed version of the Stonewall riots, giving power to the black and brown folks that put their bodies on the line so that his mom could be free to love freely.

I don’t want lesbian polar bears; I want two moms who look like the moms I see on the playground.

Plus self-harm scars and dating, crushing hard on your married coworker, learning to celebrate yourself and more!

Honey, we’re home!!!! “Wait, Is This a Date?” is back and we’re talking all things mommi culture! And all things dating as an actual mom!

What I’ve learned is that parents and moms especially, even cool radical-minded queer moms, even boss-lady moms with lots of confidence in their own abilities, really can’t escape the “working mom” BS.

“You have to wear pants to go outside.”

Even though I didn’t get to experience A-Camp in the traditionally transformative way, I got an even deeper peek into the ways that this community is both very real and deeply caring.

On top of how hard it is to be transgender in a cissexist world, it’s also really hard to be a child. It can be hard to have two moms in a heterosexist world. It can be hard to have a transgender mom. Put that all together, and I’m just one giant ball of anxiety who is frequently at a loss for the perfect way to help my child navigate the world.

“Before becoming a parent, I looked at parenting through rose-colored glasses — with an able-bodied person’s perspective. It was drilled into my head by other people, well-meaning as they were, that I probably shouldn’t have children.”

“Every day since my father died has been at least a little fucked up. There is no such thing as a non-fucked up day when you are a Daddy’s girl without a father.”

I hold on to those principles of starving artist days past and strive to integrate them into this new realm of diapers, strollers, and temper tantrums

How I prepare my home and myself for the experience of birth and new parenthood, with as few products as possible.

So maybe my pregnancy path isn’t as simple and straightforward as baby books would have you believe it should be because I’m a poor QPoC with anxiety, but it has been an interesting worthwhile journey so far. I can’t wait until I can take the next step.

“Whether or not you are out in the world, being queer and belonging to a community of marginalized folks (even if it’s a community you only align with in a spiritual or distanced way) has its own problems with feelings of enoughness and the disenfranchisement or everyday trauma of living with an identity that is consistently questioned or belittled.”

Now that back to school sales are in full swing, it’s hard to look through clothing catalogs without becoming irate. Here are some retailers that don’t think your kids are damsels in distress.

A mom turned to an internet message board to ask how she should handle the fact that her daughter is a lesbian and people actually responded and gave great advice. Then we wanted to give some advice, too.