Introductions in Stuff

The film last week was definitely adult-themed, but tamer regarding sex and nudity than I thought it would be. In the end I was more concerned that my younger kids might not really understand the world of cruising for anonymous gay sex more than I was concerned with a few butt shots and one brief penis silhouette.

We’ve been lamenting as a family that we didn’t get to the beach as much this summer as we usually do. The oldest has gone with her friends, but we haven’t gone just the four of us very many times. For many years that has been the summer tradition, Saturdays and/or Sundays at a nice beach as a family.

The kids are getting older now, so maybe that’s part of it. The oldest is more inclined to spend weekends with friends.

I’m lacking in anything much to write about today and I keep struggling writing here with intentionally leaving out my kid’s names, so I think I’ll introduce them all briefly here so I can stop being as ambiguous. I’ll even start with myself.

ME - My name is Libby. I hate the term single mother but I never know what else to say instead. I’ve never been married and all three of my children have different fathers. I’m saying that upfront because I’m not ashamed about it. I’ve tried to be very sex positive my whole life. We live in Boston and I work as a litigator in corporate law. I’m fierce about my profession and I’m often involved in high-stakes legal proceedings that can really fill my time and brain power. However, I do my best to shut off that life when I’m home. I try my best to be an involved mom and not someone that squeezes family time in between work commitments. I’m realizing now that trying to introduce myself in a paragraph is silly. I could go on for pages and pages. The rest I’m sure will just come out as I write more entries.

My oldest is named Olsen. She’s 19 and in college. She’s the most opinionated of the kids, which is both good and frustrating simultaneously. She has a part time job, a new boyfriend every few weeks, and smokes a lot of weed that she thinks I don’t know about. In a lot of ways, she’s a typical college student. She is mildly obsessed with fitness and spends a little too much time at the gym, in my opinion. She has an enormous heart for everyone and I could really see her ending up in a career in the non-profit world. She’s always been interested in attending protests and rallies, and has lately really taken to LGBTQ events even though she’s never given the impression of being anything other than heterosexual.

My son is named Mercer. He’s 15 and in 10th grade. Always a little socially awkward and sometimes a little too direct, he’s most often a great source of humor in the family. He’s never afraid to say anything and never seems concerned with whether or not what he’s saying is politically correct or non-offensive. This is a really endearing quality about him to me, but I can see a future when this would get him in trouble. He likes to go on runs so he can have “alone time” but is not otherwise concerned with physical fitness the way Olsen is. He has a small group of friends, a disdain for politics, and an almost asexual nature that I wasn’t expecting from a son. The stereotype that boys are obsessed with sex sometimes I think works against boys that aren’t.

My youngest is named Harrison. I’m not going to lie, I gave both of my daughters names that don’t sound like girls’ names. I just didn’t want either of them to be stuck with something super-feminine sounding. I like the idea of a little bit of name neutrality. Harrison goes by Harry and owns that manly-sounding name like it was made for her. The irony is that she’s the ultra princess feminine one in the family. A huge social butterfly who is instantly friends with everyone she talks to. I really worry about this as she is now almost 15 (less than thirteen months separate Mercer and Harry) and suddenly boys are very excited about her friendliness. Harry is the one that will question everything until you want to scream, but in the end you’ll realize she’s asking these questions out of a true curiosity and desire to understand things. Not overly opinionated, but when she does express her thoughts on something you know it was the result of months of pondering it obsessively.

Hardly a complete description of the family, I just wanted to be able to write from here on out without being straddled to the vague terms “my oldest,” “my son” and, “my youngest.”

Last updated October 10, 2017