I do like being a gay uncle.

[cosmolinguist]

I went to the park with haggis and her kid this morning.

There was one point where I was pushing said kid on the swings (a lot of the morning was haggis, D and I doing as we were directed and I'd been specifically told to push her at this point) next to a nice young man doing the same with his own toddler.

He said hello by asking me "How old is she?" to which I of course panicked because I'm not sure these days. "...Four??" I said eventually. haggis came over and saved me from more of this peril by making normal parent conversation herself.

Then the guy said "Is she the only one you guys have?" and my thoughts hadn't gotten any further than what, here with us today?

haggis said the kid is hers, and her husband's but I'm not her husband, and meanwhile I was like oh shit he thinks I'm the husband! or the new dad! Oh no! So I joked about being a gay uncle.

I don't think I've ever been mistaken for a husband before! I probably would've thought it was fun, if I wasn't too confused at the time to know that it was happening...

Comments

[barakta]

Hah! Gay Uncle++

My good friend Kat is a worker in primary schools and she explicitly talks to small children about "your adult" or "your grownup" which avoids assuming parenthood or gendering stuff.

While Kat has two now adult children of her own, she is the sort of very maternal person who happily borrows children to enjoy while giving the main caregivers (there's a word we don't use in the UK but I know from US writing) a rest and has learned the scripts for "Oh, I'm not their parent" conversation cos she's actually a lot more socially awkward than most people realise cos she's so adept at scripting.