Pressure to be Perfect? Absolutely!!

I rarely link to other posts from my blog, but after reading the current post on Family Pride's Blog I felt I had to share it with folks who may not otherwise see it. As you may remember, I did a guest post on this blog in July. Since then, I've been reading the other guest posts religiously. While I can relate to many, none have quite touched a nerve(in a good way) like this posting by Cindy Rizzo about the pressure to be perfect parents.

From my perspective, we are under pressure to be better at parenting that your run of the mill heterosexual led families. So much is written, researched and most of the time falsely reported about our "lifestyle" that it may appear that we are under a microscope.

I have often felt I/we have to "explain" why Sofie does/acts/reacts to the things she does. She does have some awfully good reasons for being how she is in the world, but that is neither here nor there. Some have blamed it on our poor parenting, lack of structure or our indulgences on her. Some of that may be true, some of that is grossly misstated or misunderstood. We parent her the best WE are capable of at that given moment. Sure we slip and slide and make mistakes. Who doesn't?

If we raise a child who became something less than a stellar member of society, I'm sure the "religious wrong" would blame the unfit morals our children were raised within. Meanwhile, so many of these zealots are getting "trapped" by undercover policemen for soliciting sex in public bathrooms. Uh, is it me or does that just one of the most hypocritical things a human can do?

I think I have to jump on that bandwagon that Cindy Rizzo referred to in her piece, "to assert that GLBT parents are merely equal—no better and no worse than heterosexual parents." We are equal. We take our kids to swimming lessons when they don't want to go. They complain loudly about going to church. They don't want to do their homework. In contrast, some love swim lessons, church and schoolwork. Kids are kids are kids. Life is challenging with them, but it would be boring as hell without them. Be out and proud that your kids are just a normal as other kids in the world!