The question of motherhood, of raising a child, of being a mother to another human life is so loaded for me that I spend an equal amount of time trying not to think about it and obsessing about it.
Mother’s Day has a way of making everyone feel like an outsider. This brunch-y, kid friendly version of Mother’s Day, creates the feeling that there is some elusive “right way” to celebrate and be celebrated. We want to flip that.
If and when we want to have sex in such a way where we only think of our own wants and needs, we can always have that easily with masturbation. But once more than one person is involved in sex, more than one person needs to be seen, heard and considered.
How can you tell Mom you’ve become a sexual adult without disappointing her? How can you ask her for birth control? How can you disclose being sexually active? And is it okay to use her sex toy eithout asking?
Do you have to worry that simply by virtue of being a male person with a sexuality, you’ll abuse someone? No. Being a certain sex, having a certain gender or having a sexuality does not mean a person has any kind of innate predilection to abuse.
The Western Australian Department of Health released a new book designed to help parents send healthy messages about sexuality to their children, and there doesn’t seem to be any controversy.
Depending on your view, the answer to that question might seem really obvious or very tricky and hazy. However, it’s a phrase and concept that’s bandied about a lot, yet is rarely explained. A group of Australian researchers finally defined it clearly and holistically.
Abortion is morally defensible because women are the best arbiters of whether or not they are ready to bear a child, not because it is a way for society to prevent the births of babies perceived as undesirable.
Mother’s Day always makes me think about the up and down journey motherhood has been for me and many of the women I know. I had my first child at nineteen and I still don’t know how I made it. I worked two jobs, with the first one starting at five in the morning and the second one finishing at nine at night. I couldn’t afford full-time childcare, so I moved my son Danny between two part-time centers that weren’t as good as I hoped for but better than I could afford.
Jaime and Laura are a lesbian couple in California whose son suffers from a serious heart condition. Without legal protections, their family would have suffered far more hardship than they did. Jaime addresses supporters of Prop 8 in a letter.
