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Meg Macy's avatar

What a great interview! thanks for sharing. Here's what I found most relevant: "What’s surprised me in the best way is this: everyone warns you that you’ll lose yourself in parenting. That you’ll disappear. ..."

MANY women end up "disappearing" either into their husband's identity or their kid's.

I came perilously close to that myself (the latter), and would jokingly say, "I'm X's mom" when asked my name. I cringe now, because while I ABSOLUTELY LOVED "seeing the amazing changes of a very happy and funny young human" (spot on, Matt!), I had to almost "reinvent" myself once my kid went to college. I also "evolved" and that's great, but while I felt I did share tons of stuff with my kid and gave advice/support in those years, I wonder if it could have been so much more (?) maybe?? Sigh.

So much to unpack here. Kudos to you/your husband for being successful parents!

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Gail Marlene Schwartz's avatar

Such a delight to read this-thanks Aidan for introducing me to Matt. I particularly loved the idea of creativity as inherent in the experience of queer parenting as well as how critical it is to show up authentically. Fantastic to add to the representation of queer dads too. Many thanks to you both!

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