It was a unique and moving official validation of our family. It is a shame that some of my lesbian sisters will not grant my relationship with my kids the same recognition as the court was willing to. As I suspected, our girl thought the question was a little silly. Most of all I feel concerned about putting small children on the front line of battles for linguistic and social change. The above line spoke clearly to me.
Children have a natural way of defining themselves and the world they live in.
They are usually the best guide to social change and are not necessarily as willing to accept the world as we define it for them. They are honest and want to know exactly what things are. But also, as they are better than we are at seeing how things are, it's better for us to listen to them and let them take the lead in places like what they decide to call us. It's worked out pretty well, even at 16 mo although we think I've turned into mommy now. This started when I lived in a very homophobic state, and it would have been potentially dangerous to list the partner as such.