My friend Eric asked me to share my opinion about his newly released book, The Ultimate Guide For Gay Dads. A book I wish was around over 14 1/2 years ago when we adopted our infant son. I had no idea about anything!
One of the first things that drew me to this book was the foreword. I had no idea that one of my TV idols was gay, let alone that he had become a dad, and that he had written a foreword for my friends book! Greg Berlanti is responsible for at least four shows on TV that I watch every week! He shares that he knew he always wanted to become a parent, and just like me he was in his 40’s when it happened: that’s when our energy starts to wane, and when we need more of it!
I was so happy to receive Eric’s guide. We had amazing support when our son was born because we had large families to help us and share advice. From one sister-in-law telling me what baby bottles to buy, to another telling me how to get the kid to sleep better. We were starved for all of this information! And we were very lucky to have so many around us to guide us, not a lot of same sex couples are that fortunate.
And now here is all that information in one handy guide! Eric talks about choosing formula. This is extremely helpful because breastfeeding is not an option for “our kind,” while that is the path many new moms take. We used the formula that the hospital gave us and never veered from that, otherwise we would not have known what to do, and it is even worse now, there are too many options!
Eric writes about the simple day to day stuff that us gay dads get asked all the time. Who is the mom, who is the dad? Hint: We are both the dad! Did you adopt, did you use a surrogate, if so where did the egg come from and who’s sperm did you use? My son and husband are both very handsome, so folks assume my hubby donated the sperm. Wrong! We adopted. But this is exactly the questioning with pre-conceived notions that same sex parents get all the time. And more so for gay dads, folks tend not to ask a woman these many questions because women can produce babies, even without us guys!
This handbook is a great guide for dads who are expecting, or who have a little one already. It opens the conversation around things like the last name of the baby, which dad will he/she take the last name from? What do you tell schools, doctors, etc.? Again, all the hurdles that we had no help with!
I highly recommend this book for gay dads, and even for gay moms. In fact, there is an education in here for everyone, even heterosexual families, since these days almost everyone’s kids go to school with other kids who have same sex parents, like my family!
Lastly, we avoided a lot of drama, questions, and pitfalls because we decided to raise our son in Manhattan, a bastion of liberal attitudes and views. From the very beginning our son was told that all families are different, and this was true in New York, there are many different kinds of families. Our son has not had to deal with bullying as an issue for having gay dads, and for this we are extra grateful. But many others do have to deal with this and a myriad of other issues, so buy The Ultimate Guide for Gay Dads so you can get support for all parenting issues!
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for review. All opinions are always 100% honest and our own.
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