Telling people...

Telling people is interesting. You are projecting something that brings you great joy, onto someone else and hoping they mirror it. Sometimes they do. Sometimes the widening of the eyes is enough to translate the complete surprise; sometimes a spontaneous hug; sometimes just stunned silence.

This weekend we told my in-laws and my brother. 

As I’m going to expand on this I might as well address this now – my wife and I are of different nationalities. We live in a third country, one that doesn’t permit single-sex parenting, one that has no laws in place to support gay marriage, and in a village near major cities that have no gay bars or LGBT cafes or even Pride marches – a conservative country. 

You probably didn’t guess it from the description, but we are also in a major European country, and not a developing nation in the back of beyond. To be specific, we are actually in Switzerland. And gay-rights aside it is a very nice place to be. 

Going on from that, what I’m trying to say is that different cultures seem to take the prospect of two women having a child in various degrees of excitement. My in-laws remained seated and seemed more concerned about practicalities. My brother just seemed over the moon. 

What I’m learning about this process is that everyone brings their own baggage to it – from the colleague who is having problems conceiving to couples with infighting over another child, to the loveless marriages or consciously child-free couples – and that is okay. Culture adds another layer to that reaction and that is totally okay too. 

What matters is my wife and I are happy, fucking ecstatic in fact, and that is more than okay as well.