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can second hand thrift stores be addicting?

I don’t know.  But I do love to browse them.

As many of my readers know, I typically am a stay at home dad of 5 kids.  3 of whom have some type of disability.  Life is good.  Right now I am on a vacation.  So while my eldest daughter is off doing her thing, I hit second hand stores today.  The first was Goodwill.  I spent a good hour and a half perusing their stacks today.  Found two Gevalia Coffee canisters.  Only one that smells like it had coffee in it.  Very interesting find.  🙂 the other stores are all closed today so will hit them tomorrow and Tuesday.  Hope everyone is having a great day!

 

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Like a dove taking flight for the first time

When is your child old enough?  at 18?  when they go to college?

At some point we all have to let our children go.

Go off in the world and make successes and errors of their own.  Hope that the way they were raised prevents unexpected developments, jail sentences and things of that nature.

English: White Dove Bird

It is difficult.  I will be the first to admit that I am struggling. My eldest daughter is off to college in the fall, and while I understand that it is a part of the growing up process, I don’t want to let her go.

Like a good friend said… “if there was an award for worry, every parent would be nominated…”

With love in my heart, I let her go like a dove taking flight after learning how to fly.

 

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Three dads, four mothers? What’s next?

I consider myself to be a pretty liberal kind of guy, but this proposed legislation has me a bit uneasy.

The bill, currently making its way through the Calfornia legislature, would give children the right to legally have more than two parents.

State Senator Mark Leno, a Democrat (what else?) from San Francisco, says that “The bill brings California into the 21st century, recognizing that there are more than ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ families today.”

Leno apparently got the idea for the bill (SB1476) from a 2011 court case in which a young girl was ordered into foster care when her legally married parents (two women) weren’t around to care for her. Mom number 1 was in jail; Mom 2 was in the hospital. The girl had a relationship with her biological father, but apparently the court wasn’t able to give him custody.

The proposed legislation—which has already passed the State Senate and is awaiting approval from the State Assembly. If it passes, California wouldn’t actually be the first state to recognize more than two parents. Delaware, Maine, Pennsylvania, and DC beat us to the punch.

On one hand, I can see the logic here. In a world where same-sex marriages (or domestic partnerships), surrogate mothers, sperm donors, and egg donors are common, the definition of the word “parent” has become a little fuzzy.

On the other hand, aren’t things already complicated enough? In divorce cases, it’s hard enough on a child to go back and forth between two parents’ homes. What would happen if there were three or four or five parents? And how on earth would tax deductions be calculated?

Seems to me that we already have the concept of legal guardianship for exactly these situations. If one or both parents are incapacitated, the child would go to the legal guardian. The guardian could then be “upgraded” to parent by a court if necessary.

This issue has, as you might expect, degraded into a political battle, with Democrats on one side and Republicans on the other. In my opinion there’s no room for politics here–what we need to be concerned about is what’s best for the children.

But what do you think? Are two parents enough? What advantages and disadvantages do you see to opening the door to multiple parents?

 



Armin Brott

 

Armin Brott

Dad of three, best-selling author, speaker, nationally syndicated columnist and radio host, Marine Corps vet, spokesperson, and, generally speaking, a pretty nice guy.

Website: http://www.dadsoup.com

Twitter: mrdad