The holidays can be complicated if this is the year you learned you are the parent of a transgender child. In fact, they may be complex, no matter how many years it has been. You may feel sad, overwhelmed, or not in the holiday spirit. You may wonder how to deal with personalized items, holiday… Continue reading Navigating the Holidays
Are you searching for good gifts for parents of transgender children? Look no further. I’ve collected an assortment of gifts that would be appropriate for moms, dads, or guardians. There are no photos of the individual items, so the page will load quickly and not clog down mobile phones, but once I got past the… Continue reading Gifts For Parents of Transgender Children
Recently I wrote a post about worrying about things outside of your control. In it, I talked about how as parents, we fear for our kid’s safety, and while it’s normal to worry, excessive worry and fear undermine our trust in our kids and our ability to parent. I stand by what I said. But… Continue reading When Your Child Isn’t Safe
We moved into our house Labor Day weekend, 2001. We were nearing our 30s, and our kids were 6.5 and newly 4. My mom lived in MD, and my dad traveled between MA and VA. On all sides, the rest of our family lived an hour an a half in any direction. We had no… Continue reading When Other’s Stand in the Gap For Your Child
I’ve written a lot about grief on this website. The most-read post is about how you can grieve and support your child. I wrote that post in response to an article in the New York Times that said grieving the transition of a transgender child is transphobic. It still makes me mad to think about… Continue reading Grief Looks Different For Everyone
While I didn’t understand what being transgender meant when my son Leo came out, I supported him immediately. I knew that members of the LGBTQ+ community who had supportive family members thrived compared to those who did not. Besides, whatever I felt about Leo being transgender, I needed to work out on my own. What… Continue reading When Your Partner or Spouse is Unsupportive of Your Child
My son Leo came out as transgender at the age of eighteen-and-a-half. For all those years, my brain and mouth associated one name and set of pronouns with my child. I used that name and set of pronouns dozens and dozens of times a day. Then suddenly, overnight, I had to change to a new… Continue reading When Your Family Won’t Use Your Child’s Name or Pronouns
When your child comes out as transgender, they begin a transition to the person they have always been. In some ways, your family begins a transition too. As a parent, however, you are still the same person. Nothing about you changed the day your child came out. For sure, you have a lot of emotions… Continue reading When You Struggle to Relate to Other Parents
My son Leo came out as transgender in January 2016. It has been almost seven years, and for the most part, I don’t think about it anymore. Not like I did during the first four or five years. It doesn’t consume me as it did during the first two years. But some days are still… Continue reading Some Days Are Still Hard
I found out my son Leo is transgender through a Facebook post. After reading that post multiple times in disbelief, I opened up Google. I searched multiple things because I didn’t know what I was looking for. I also didn’t understand what Leo had just told me. “What does it mean to be transgender,” “What… Continue reading When You’re Worried About Your Child’s Safety
