For those of you not in Orange County to pick up this month’s Parenting OC, (which is packed with local/economical holiday shopping ideas!) you can find my column here:

http://www.parentingoc.com/sugarmama_0812.html

Just one more reason to love neil patrick harris.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8/prop-8-the-musical-starring-jack-black-john-c-reilly-and-many-more-from-fod-team-jack-black-craig-robinson-john-c-reilly-and-rashida-jones

My sons had some friends over this weekend and they all decided to play house  - a ruse, no doubt, for the six-year-olds to boss the three-year-olds around. I didn’t hear all the goings on as they were in the other room, but one comment rang down the hall like the bell tower of Notre Dame. “Well, boys can marry boys, so we’ll both be the dads then,” my son said to his friend.

Regardless of my support of gay marriage, I couldn’t help but lock eyes with my husband in shock. “This is what the anti-gay marriage groups are afraid of,” Joe said. “A deviation from the tradition of family in the eyes of our kids – our future generation.”

And then he went back to reading his paper unfazed. I had to wait a beat before I reacted. My public support of No on Prop 8 has put myself, as well as my family, in a vulnerable position – phone calls at our home, letters…

What if I was a fraud?

So I waited until the next morning – after a night of honest reflection - to bring it up to my son. “Jackson, if you want to marry a boy when you grow up, that’s ok with us.”

“What?” he asked.

“I heard you guys playing house last night.” I explained. “And it’s ok.”

“Mom, neither of us wanted to be the girl. We’re guys.”

Did I heave a little sigh of relief? Sure. But would I love my son any less had he answered any differently?

Absolutely not.