Chris and I have found the hardest part of parenting is having to talk about what is going on in the world. We do our best to stick to the facts but do share why we feel the way we do about issues in the world. There have been a number of difficult conversations this year.

One conversation that was especially difficult happened the day of the Orlando massacre at the Pulse Nightclub.

It was Pride weekend in Boston. Our family has marched in previous parades, and had it not been for Bren’s rehearsal, we would have again this year. Bre was looking forward to watching the Tony Awards that Sunday night and Aidan- though not as interested in theater- wanted to see the Hamilton performance. It forced us to talk about what had just happened so that hearing the news on television would not be for the first time. There were tears and hugs and questions about how something like this could happen and why there are people who hate other people in the world. When Lin-Manuel Miranda spoke his “love is love is love” words, our kids heard it loud and clear. And we hugged them both with tears in our eyes.

And of course the other difficult conversation was the morning after the election.

One Christmas tradition we have is to ask the kids to choose a picture that represents the year for them. We make an ornament of the picture for our Christmas tree. While choosing an ornament on Personalization Mall, our Bren came across the “Love is Love” ornament- a rainbow on one side and a place for the year’s picture on the other. That’s the ornament he chose this year.

Every year the kids choose a favorite picture from the year and we put it on a Christmas ornament. When I was ordering this year’s Brendan saw there was an option for a picture on one side and “Love is love” on the other side. He decided that’s the one he wanted.

Perfect choice for 2016.
PS The picture he chose for the other side is him in his Marilyn Monroe costume.