Happy Mother’s Day to the Gay Fathers
And to all the single fathers, foster fathers and elder brothers who are mothering the children in their lives.
Why do we forget about them on mother’s day?
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love all the attention on this one day when everyone recognizes how we literally give up our old life to start a new one for the little rascals we created from scratch; appreciate us with special messages, gifts, and love! I feel like that should be done every day, not just mother’s day but that’s a discussion for another time.
But I do want to share this attention with equally deserving men who are mothering. Yes, we females do have a biological disposition of being more motherly but that does not mean that men entirely lack those motherly instincts.
I remember being terrified after bringing my son home from the hospital and just thinking “what am I going to do with him? How will I make sure that I don’t screw him up? What if I am not able to love him enough?” (my present-day self knows better than to ask all those questions). All this even though I have the “biological advantage” of being a birth giver. I can’t even imagine how gay parents must feel when they bring their babies home.
You don’t become a mother just by giving birth. You become a mother by mothering.
On this mother's day, I would like to shout out to all the men who are mothering. The single dads, the gay dads, the foster dads, the older brothers — all of them, who are giving up their lives for the littles.
Society tends to forget about them but the truth is they need as much support and cheering as the females do. Sometimes even more.
They have to fight hard for their kids. Fight with their own families, fight with the legal system, fight with their faith, and sometimes even fight with themselves. It takes a lot of courage to take the decision to raise a child against all the odds. But they still make it happen.
Happy Mothering Day to all these guys.
