The Weight of Family
All the microaggressions you never wanted
It was New Year’s Eve and we had brought our three kids to visit their granny for a few days. The kids were in bed, and myself, my wife, and my mom had just finished watching Spider-Man: Homecoming. I was clicking through Netflix to see what else caught our eyes.
“Men always change the channels the same way when they get a remote in their hands.”
“Fuck you too, Mom.”
And with that I got up and went to bed, crying.
All I wanted was some empathy and support from my mom. Just an acknowledgment that this year had been particularly hard for me. First my gender surgery on February 1st. Then, exactly two months later, a stroke. Very little support or follow-up as an English-speaker in Quebec City. Then, in August, having to deal with a move to a new city, Ottawa.
Arriving in Ottawa and finding out that, for the seat of government, Covid-related decisions that had been made in and for the public service had been applied to the military as well, meaning that…
