How will the abolition of mums and dads effect us and our babies?

[kfca]

Does anyone else mind not being recognised as the mother of their baby, if the law changes, maybe in the new year, with the marriage changes?
Will mumsnet have to rename itself as LegalParentAnet?

[Devora]

Spero's spot-on, though, when she talks about how the equal civil marriage debate exposes how some people really do feel that their marriage will be downgraded by it, because the fact that they are married is one of the few places where they can feel 'better' than other people.

[Lilka]

My wonderful comment (which wasn't at all angrily thumped out without thinking) got deleted! Oh well

Let me rephrase thoughtfully - It's so awful that OP feels so dreadfully sad about being a parent, and feels reduced, especially to the level of an adoptive parent. Please excuse me from this thread for just a minute, while I go and fetch the world's smallest violin

I love being Parent A, A Parent

Heck, I'm not only Parent A, I'm B, C, D, X, AA, Infinity. I'm the ONLY Parent in this house. So I should get to be everything at once, I think

[chipmonkey]

Oh no, adoptive parents are heroes dontcha know? It's why I hang around outside MrsDeVere's house waiting to get her autograph.

[Devora]

Aw, thanks LadyIsabella. I think we're a pretty thick-skinned bunch, actually. Just tiger-like when someone starts dissing our kids

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

This thread has brightened my day considerably. Lots of lovely MNers on top form, LalaGabby's contender for Post Of The Week, right at the top. And the realisation that if the anti-gay marriage mob are so desperate that they have to resort to this load of old bollocks then they are really truly screwed.

(So sorry that the adoptive parents got upset along the way though - you do know that the OP is in a minority of one though, don't you? Here, at least.)

[SledYuleCated]

I don't know, but should I worry? I'm worrying. I'm not even Legal Parent A. I'm just A. A what? A giraffe? A poke in the eye?

[Devora]

Oh, waaaaay below, surely.

A woman who doesn't breed? What's the point of that, exactly?

[breatheslowly]

SledYuleCated - perhaps the OP could clarify whether non-parents rate above or below gay and adoptive parents on the OP's hierarchy of heroism.

[Devora]

Sied - nah, I think OP's construction is that adoptive parenting isn't REAL parenting - it's just unpaid FT childminding of a kid you have no vested interest in. Anyone who took that on would have to be a bit of a hero, right?

Chip - I think the research you want is by Susan Golombok, Cambridge University.

[SledYuleCated]

Hang on, I'm not even a parent...

WHAT AM I DOING HERE?!

[HoneyDragon]

I'd deffo be the illegal parent

[BoulevardOfBrokenSleep]

GalaxyDisaster - "isn't 'Our Father' really just linguistic. Don't Christians believe that God transcends gender? Or am I getting muddled."

I'm pretty sure the CofE just established beyond all reasonable doubt that God does, in fact, have a penis.
They're still working on the great boxers/briefs schism, though.

[EmpressOfTheNorthPole]

Oh, I agree, the others are a lot better!

[FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda]

Actually Selim, that's not a bad idea. Legal parent lion and legal parent tiger could come with a third option of legal parent bear.

Oh my!

[Selim]

Legal parent circle and legal parent square

Legal parent jupiter and legal parent saturn

Legal parent lion and legal parent tiger.


and so on.

[FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda]

In my primary school we were identified by animal groups. I could live with Legal Parent Panda (better than Legal Parent Red and Legal Parent Yellow. What on earth were you thinking Empress?).

[HECTheHallsWithRowsAndFolly]

smiley faces?

[Selim]

I would disagree that X is oppressed. It maybe underused but it is mystery, the unknown, God and self all rolled into one. It is the most exalted letter. It even has its own chromosome.

I think the only solution is to adopt the system used in primary schools to differentiate work.

[FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda]

Because it's the alpha letter, and let's face reality here, do you want to be in the A-team or the B-team? Although personally I always feel a strong affinity with X, as the minority and most oppressed letter.

[HECTheHallsWithRowsAndFolly]

But why should the letter A have such status?

That discriminates against the whole of the rest of the alphabet. Are you suggesting A is better than B?

[EmpressOfTheNorthPole]

How about Legal Parent Red and Legal Parent Yellow?

[FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda]

I think it's disgraceful to use Legal Parent A and Legal Parent B. It's so discriminatory against Legal Parent B who will always come second to Legal Parent A. This is not equality. Everyone should be Legal Parent A.

[Selim]

Our legal parent B, who art in heaven...

Hail Mary, legal parent A of God...


Wel it will take some getting used to but they changed the whole mass last year and it didn't take that long to be off book again so I imagine we'll cope.

[mrsd277]

I'm loving this thread. It reaffirms my believe in humanity. OP aside.