Who's your daddy?

It's funny the things your kids will say, and usually when you least expect it.  No neither of my children have questioned their parentage...   yet.    But yesterday during dinner my eight year old is talking with her eight year old best friend when she abruptly looked at her dad and asked "Who will be my step dad?"  Of course our first reaction is to look at this child we accredit with so much intelligence with a dumb founded look, it's a look we seem to be using more and more these days.  Her dad recovers and responds, "You won't have a step dad ever!"  To which the best friend chirps in and says  "Believe me you don't want a stepmom or dad, I have a stepmom, you don't want her."  The go back to eating and the conversation goes on to include, how healthy milk is, even though it has calories, and that veggies and fruits are good for you too even though they have calories too.   But of course that part of the conversation is a blog for another day in itself.  Let's get back to good old step dad.

As I thought of the question, I began to see that it really wasn't that absurd of a question after all.  Just because I come from a family that hasn't seen a divorce doesn't mean it hasn't become the standard.   How many people do I actually know that are actually in a "traditional" family.  And can we really say what is traditional anymore?  My own kids have several "sets" or "pairings" of grandparents.  There is Grandma and Grandpa (my parents), there is Granny and Granddad (hubby's mom and step dad), there is Opa (hubby's dad) and Oma Donna and Opa Dave (hubby's step mom and hubby).   And it is major crime in my kids eyes if you accidently refer to one of the grandparents by the wrong title.  On reflection it seems most of our friends are in non traditional families.   We have the whole variety it seems, gay parents, step parents, single parents, and adoptive parents.  Does this mean any one of our friends is a better or worse parent than us.  Nope.  It does question your idea of what is the norm now.   So questions such as "Who will my step dad be?" maybe isn't so outrageous after all.