howie’s halfpipe

my two pennies worth on educating toddlers about same sex parents
last night at commy dinner we discussed the recent implementation of educating kiddies in some day care centres about same sex parents and that some kiddies have same sex parents. Lots of people had very different opinions on the issue some saying they they strongly disagree with it other thinking it was helpful, others indifferent. Well last night i shared the following and i thought it would blog it too.

The beautiful thing about kiddies aged 0 - 4 is that they dont really judge anyone else. All they want to do is play, feel loved and explore.
When i was in Albania last year as part of a team running some festivals in the city of Korce, there was one night that over at the little mini jumping castle there were 2 little girls jumping.
One of the girls was the mayors daughter, the other was a gypsy girl. In Albania the gypsy peope are seen as inferior, they dont have permanent homes and jobs, they travel around in large groups. but these two girls were jumping happily together not a care in the world, just enjoying jumping together and laughing.
I am pretty sure that little kiddies in a day care centre are not going to notice if larry has two mummy’s instead of a mummy and a daddy. but if they where to notice i dont think it would affect the kiddies in any way, they wouldnt think twice about it.
However i think it would affect larry. If larry is playing happily in the sand pit and the teacher comes out and reads all the kiddies a story and in the story it talks about a little boy and his family. the teacher reads about how this little boy after a big day playing goes home to his mummy and daddy. well then larry may wonder why he doesnt go home to a mummy and daddy but rather he goes home to a mummy and a mummy. So he may be affected, but if the teacher reads a story about different kiddies going home to different sorts of families then it wont seem abnormal to larry and he wont feel like he is different to the other kiddies.
So in a daycare setting i think the only people who will benefit from knowing that some families are different and just becasue you may have 2 mummies is ok becase some kiddies only have a mum and no dad or some families have 2 daddys or some families have 2 daddy and 2 mummys.
I think the other kids wont even notice that things are different for someone else, and even if they do notice a difference they wont judge or think anything of it.
BUT
once kids hit primary school its a whole new ball game.
In primary school kids do begin to notice things about their peers and if something is different from themselves then the other person has something wrong or the kid sees themself as having something wrong. In this instance if larry goes on to primary school and his good friend ben notices one day that larry has two mums instead of a mum and a dad like himself he will probably see larry as being different, this is when things like teasing, segregation and all that could kick in. So in primary school educating kids taht some families are different will be helpful for the other kids who dont for example have same sex parents. In primary school it will help kids to be aware of differences and except differences. I dont think its eveil to tell kids that some people have same sex parents, its not going to make young kids question their own sexuality and make them come to the conclusion that maybe they are gay. Its just helping them to be more accepting of their community and surroundings. But it shouldnt just be a focus on same sex parents, but also broken homes, people from different cultures, religions etc.

so there is my input.