Parent Voices: Our First Christmas “Out”
“The smile on my youngest’s face when they saw that angel, that has made all the difference.”
Our COVID 21 has been full of many surprises, including my two reasons for living now sharing their truths with me. My oldest questioning child came forward as bisexual and my youngest as non-binary. The process of hearing, listening, feeling and wanting to protect my reasons has become more heightened during the holiday season.
As we decorated the tree, I realized how many ornaments have my children's names on them, ones I have made or purchased for them over the years. While my oldest child's name is still the same, my youngest prefers their family nickname and told me they would prefer to see that than their assigned name. As I bought or made these ornaments since they were children, I knew the goal was for them to eventually have ornaments for their own trees someday, so I have begun the process of updating the ones I could to support my child.
My children have 2 angel ornaments they would place on a chair each year to show Santa where their gifts from Santa should be left out. I took that pink dressed angel with the blond hair, painted the dress green and made the hair black with red highlights and painted their nickname across the front.
"You painted it green! And did my hair!" The smile on my youngest's face when they saw that angel, that has made all the difference. I topped off the decorating with a special addition to our nutcracker collection. A pride nutcracker holding a rainbow flag now meets everyone at the entrance to our home. This Mama Bear is looking forward to many colorful happy holidays to come.
