Also not true for everyone. My mom is gay (I was one of the very first babies born via artificial insemination to a lesbian) and my husband took my name so our daughter is the third generation of women with our last name as her birth name.

Here’s the trick, go to the Social Security office first. There’s nothing on a federal level that makes it different for a man to change his name when he gets married; all you need is the marriage certificate. Once you have a social security card with your new name the DMV has to give you a license with that name.

My husband took my name when we got married almost 8 years ago. Other than the minor confusion it’s caused when filling out our kids’ birth certificates (which have a place for mom’s maiden but not for dad’s) it’s been NBD.

I’m forever grateful that my husband and his mom have the kind of relationship where she asks before getting something like The Elf and actually listens to his explanation when he responds with “Dear god please don’t” (this was last year btw). My oldest is in 1st grade this year and we have yet to hear about anyone…

We’ve tried to find a middle ground on the idea of Santa in that we basically treat him like any other imaginary character. For example we do get pictures with Santa because I think they’re cute but we also got pictures with Elsa and Mickey Mouse when we were at Disney World last year. We don’t talk about the…

Exactly! She just posed nude for that calendar, a choice that only she and Amy Schumer made. That would seem to indicate that she likes doing so.

I come from a family of teachers and I’ve never heard of a K-3 certification either. My SIL did have a preK-3 certification early in her career though.

In the article it says she was sexually abused by her mother so saying she wasn’t “physically abused” is a bit disingenuous.

Yeah, so far most of our discussions about bodily autonomy and consent have been in relation to one or the other of my children wanting to hug their sibling and being rebuffed.

The penis thing is hard. When my son was about 4 he was very concerned that his little sister’s penis had fallen off and when she was 2 she asked me a couple of times when her penis was going to grow.

I’d say just be sure you’re answering the question he’s asking (if he does ask how the baby got there). Don’t give him a lot of information he didn’t ask for. At that age a simple explanation like Kaete’s is definitely the way to go.

Yeah, we’ve had the “you only touch your vulva/penis in the bathroom or the bedroom because it’s private.” At 4 and 6 they’ve mostly gotten the memo.

That reminds me of a conversation I had when I was about 10. I was sitting talking with these two boys in my neighborhood after we’d been playing basketball and they actually asked me where the pee comes out. I explained that girls have three holes and we just moved on with our lives. I do remember being shocked that…

I’d want to smack your coworker for that one. A few months ago my (then) not quite 4 year old daughter asked me how babies get inside mommies. I was frankly surprised it had taken that long to come up because by then her baby brother was 6 months old. I wound up being able to postpone a full explanation because I…

Warren has no interest in the executive branch. I bet Booker would jump at the offer though.

That is so sad. I hope you friend is getting the support she needs both for her daughter and herself.

We have a history of rejecting the democratic Lt. Gov when they run for Gov just because they’re generally terrible candidates (see also Kathleen Kennedy Townsend). Also, MD is a lot closer to purple that more democrats here would like to think, especially if you get a reasonably moderate republican. What it came down…

I think it’s just that the picture is overexposed and crappy to begin with because it was shot very very far away.

Yeah, but there’s a lot of room between “teen and tween” and 35.

I just checked his IMDB and other than Citizen Ruth and a few guest spots on TV I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything but I don’t ever remember not knowing who he is.