This is going to be an adventure…

So this has to be a quick post because L and her mom are in the other room waiting for me so we can watch the last two episodes of Project Runway, but I just had to get this out…

L’s mom is visiting for the weekend, which is great.  I love her a lot and she is a wonderful person.  She used to be a home birth midwife, so she is an excellent resource when we have had any questions about anything baby-related.  But of course she has her very strong opinions about things.  Well, today we went to a book store to buy a magazine I just found online called “Brain, Child” that bills itself as a “literary parenting magazine.”  I don’t know anything about it beyond these two things: 1) Barbara Kingsolver has written for it and I love her and her books so much.  2)  In their last magazine there was an article about a lesbian couple considering the issue of circumcision for their son.  It seemed like an interesting article and I appreciate any magazine including a story about a lesbian family that was not focusing, with shock, on the fact that two women can raise healthy, well-adjusted children (gasp!).  Anyway, I was telling L’s mom, S, about this article and she says, as we are riding the escalator up to the magazine section, “Why would you even consider circumcising?  It is barbaric.”  She went on to talk about all the reasons that she thinks it is a horrible thing to do, including telling us that she has had sex with both circumcised and uncircumcised men and “there is a big difference in terms of sensitivity.”  Something about me: I don’t like thinking about my parents (or L’s) having sex.  I know it is narrow minded of me.  I hope they do have sex and it is very fulfilling for them, but I at no time want to think about it.  I especially don’t want to hear, in public with a million people all around, about the relative sensitivity of the men’s penises any parental figure has had sex with.  No.

Anyway, all this to say that I know circumcision is a serious topic that L and I have to consider.  We don’t have strong feelings either way at this point, but have more research and talking to do about it.  But now I feel like if we decide to do it, L’s mom will see us as barbaric, which is difficult to deal with.  I think this isn’t really even about this one decision, I am just going to have to get used to making choices that others may not agree with and be okay with that.   I know that other people always feel like they have a right to tell others how to parent and what the best decisions are for their children, and parents have to learn to deal with that.  This isn’t something I am super good at now, but I will certainly have to learn — starting tomorrow — when L’s mom accompanies us to the RE.  I am a little worried about it because S is really into natural everything and we might have to make a decision tomorrow about L going on Clomid.  It should be interesting.  Hopefully L is ovulating and we will be able to start inseminating (which L already told her mother she may not be present for), or we will be able to make some of these decisions after her mom leaves on Tuesday.  Whatever happens, please wish us luck.

Now I better go, I hear Tim Gunn calling to me from the other room.