MY TWO DADS

A couple of weeks ago when Arden was on her mini summer break and my parents were out here “helping” me with the girls for a few days, my father took Arden to the new Miyazaki film Ponyo. As they were walking out of the theatre Arden ran into two of her friends from school, Abigail and Eleanor and their fathers. The girls squealed with delight upon seeing each other and ran to a corner to discuss the movie or just squeal some more. My dad told me he had a very nice conversation with the fathers and said it’s a shame I couldn’t find a guy friend like that to take Arden to the movies with some time. It was then that I had to explain to my father that Abigail and Eleanor were twins and that the two guys were married and that Jen probably wouldn’t be too happy if I had a friend like that. ("that" being a husband.)

What was simple to explain to my father wasn’t quite as simple to convey to Arden when she asked me this morning why Abigail and Eleanor have two dads and no mommy. Personally I have no problem with people being gay. I voted “No” on Prop 8 and one of my favorite events in Los Angeles is the West Hollywood Halloween parade. But trying to explain homosexuality and gay marriage to a four year old seemed a lot more difficult than our conversation about God just the week before which ended in Arden saying, “I think I need to grow up a little more for this one.” Anyway, I started to explain that sometimes two daddies love each other instead of a mommy and daddy. She seemed to get this and then said, “So how do they have babies?” I stammered for a bit until she provided a answer for me. “I think one of them must be a seahorse because boy seahorses can have babies.” I thought about correcting her but she had already moved on to asking me why some cars have hood ornaments and some cars don’t.