<p>Thank you all. I very much appreciate your kind words. </p>
<p>This isn’t a big deal, and it’s somewhat embarrassing to mention, because I identify so much with all the moms here. But for the sake of accuracy, I should probably point out that although people assume when we’re together that I’m J’s mom (an assumption we don’t bother correcting), and I’d be honored if it were true, and I’d like to think that I could have been a good mother in a different life (and that our relationship isn’t really so different now from what it would be if I were), that’s not who I am. He has a mom, whom he loves very much, and it isn’t me.</p>
<p>I was his dad for way too many years for him to get used to the idea of having two moms, or to want to change what he calls me in private (although I’ve noticed that he calls me by my first name more than he used to even when we’re alone, probably because he’s used to calling me that in public and to his friends). The very first question he asked me when he was 14 years old and I told him I was planning to transition was “is it OK if I still call you Dad?” Of course I said yes, and it really doesn’t bother me. He knows I’m a woman, and accepts me as such, and I think “Dad” is a completely non-gendered term at this point for both of us. It’s simply his name for me, and using it represents continuity to him – that I’m still essentially the same person despite all the changes. When he uses it, I hear it as a three-letter word that means “I love you and you’re still mine.” </p>
<p>How could I possibly have a problem with that?</p>