My Three Dads

Not often do we wonder if you can have too much of a good thing. One such time is with the announcement that soon-to-be baby Miles will have three fathers. THREE FATHERS!?

Father No. 1 is Scott Moore, 30, who was born baby girl Jessica. Father No. 2 is Thomas (given no last name in news reports so either a Moore as well, or less) also 30, but born Laura. Father No. 3, the gent whose sperm was used to impregnate the transgendered Moore, is anonymous to date.

Moore becomes the second celebrated pregnant man, after Thomas Beatie. [Earlier: Daddy Mommy] He and his partner are married Californians and have two sons from Thomas's previous relationship with a woman.

Good luck Miles and family.

Enslaved vs. Freed

"I don't necessarily believe that the truth sets you free," says the woman whose father left her many mysteries about his life before, during and after his incarceration in Bergen-Belsen during World War II, "but I don't want to be enslaved by secrets." Despite that, Vicky Grandon will not share her father's real name when sharing his and her story, continuing his life's lessons of hiding who you are in case "they" are coming to get you.

Not even his name? Really? What's the worst thing you could admit, that your dad is now your "mom," as was the case Emily Wallis tracked down Clive, the man whose affair with her biological mom created the uncomfortable dynamic in which she lived with the man she thought was her father.

Confusion Say

Most kids have the experience to claim, as does Bill Cosby on this week's objet d'eBay, the LP "My Father Confused Me."

Although through his television show and books Cosby has come to be thought of as everydad, at one point his material included much more about being a son. While the reviews for this particular 1977 release suggest this may not have been Cosby at his best, it might still be worth considering both for what the comedian did with the material he had as well as for the idea of what he could have done if only his dad had become a woman and then married another ex-dad who had also become a woman.

Now that would truly be a dad who confused.

Daddy-Oh

In a Q&A about his own life/work as well as his father's, Christopher Rauschenberg said of his father — pop-conceptualist Robert: "Kids think their parents are the best. The best plumber or whatever. They grow up, and it isn't true. I grew up, and it's still true."

It is a wonderful thought and legacy that a father leaves a son. Will the yet-to-be-named baby girl of Thomas Beatie the transgendered pregnant dad [Earlier: Daddy Mommy] be just as pleased with the notoriety she'll face throughout her life thanks to her pop. One hopes. But it is also impossible to imagine how often she will face controversy, after all just having her father pictured pregnant means that traditional media outlets are breaking from their usual conservatism and showing the naked breasts of a mother (?).

Unusual Circumstances Don't Negate Dad Rules

Even if you can't point out where the rules are written, you still know them. They apply no matter how unusual the circumstances. And getting old is never an excuse to ignore them.

So, the 72-year-old father has no excuse to walk away from the IVF twins he had with his 59-year-old wife ... just because he wanted boys.

And all hail to an 81-year woman, Jan Morris, for continuing as a father — even (re)marrying the woman who is the mother of their five children, 60 years after their "divorce" — rather than using gender identity questions and a sex change operation as an excuse not to be a great dad.

** Just like they say in the playground, real father's rule and fool's drool. **

Daddy Mommy

In our brave new world men no longer have to strap on an empathy belly and [temporarily] experience their own pregnancy. They can now go whole hog [sort of] and experience it all.

Almost.

Thomas Beatie, smalltown Oregon's married and pregnant father, does offer in his personal narrative the small detail that he happens to be a not quite fully transgendered female. But as a preggers papa, he feels, "Incredible. Despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the man that I am. In a technical sense I see myself as my own surrogate, though my gender identity as male is constant. To [wife] Nancy, I am her husband carrying our child. I will be my daughter’s father, and Nancy will be her mother. We will be a family.”

At first it seemed this seemed a terrific solution to the drama of the absentee father. But then two thoughts. The first is that the presidential campaigners in the fall could owe their paths to absentee fathers — so maybe, and depending on the father and child, it is not always a bad thing — the second, the more obvious, having a baby doesn't keep moms from running away and leaving the child with the husband, or in this case Beatie's wife (the not mother).

** If dads startd giving birth, how long before humanity would naturally evolve to a one-sex species? **