August 10, 2015 22:36 by PrideAngelAdmin
I walked into the living room to find my parents reading an old book of
mine to two-year-old Luna. There was an awkwardness in the atmosphere.
It turned out they’d panicked at the appearance of the main character’s
‘daddy’, but explained they’d managed to handle it by saying it was
‘grandad’. Phew!
Still, much as Luna is very clear about what being part of an LGBT
family means (looking at the page of ‘Dads’ in the Ahlbergs’ the Baby’s
Catalogue: “Does Luna have a Daddy?”, “no, two mummies.”) it would be
nice to see our own family structure reflected a little more frequently.
Of course there are some excellent LGBT books for toddlers available: in Newman and Thompson’s Mommy, Mama and Me, the mummies are uncannily like Sal and me in the mothering roles they adopt and Luna is clearly convinced that the story was written about her little life. But you don’t just walk into any old high street book shop and find those books. Not in my experience anyway. Not yet.
In the meantime, we might just have to make a few subtle alterations to some of the stories we already read and have Little Red Riding Hood rescued from the wolf’s belly by the woodcutter the sperm donor and Goldilocks tasting the porridge of Mummy Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.
And if a daddy crops up again somewhere? Well, maybe he’ll be with his boyfriend...
Article: by Lindsey, West Yorkshire 10th August 2015
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