Over the Rainbow

Took the little man to a birthday party for a classmate on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and the party was held at a local 4H Club set on a farm, complete with pony rides for the kiddies. His entire class was there, which was really nice. Got to chat with a few parents while the little man discovered pigs, cows and other barnyard animals.

The only problem I had was that I couldn't figure out for the life of me who the Mom was. I wanted to compliment whoever she was on her choice for the party location. Was it the short brunette welcoming everyone or the tall blonde coralling the kiddies for the pony rides? I finally gave up and, blushing a wee bit, asked a fellow Mom, "Which one is Teddy's Mom?". She pointed her out, "Over there by the barn." And then she pointed her out again, "Over there by the pony."

"Well which one is she?"

"Both," she stated rather matter-of-factly.

"Oh!" Sorry, wasn't that good at hiding my shock.

"Yes, we have a few rainbow families here."

The other one has two kids with a third one on the way. See, she goes to another Scandinavian country to get artificially inseminated each time. She's a single Mom and gay.

Though Swedes might not be the friendliest of folk, they sure are accepting and tolerant. Little man has been going to this school for almost a year and this is the first time I hear about this. It's a non-issue so why would I have been actively told about this? And I certainly never would have guessed either.

This sort of brings up the whole How-to-explain-this-stuff to the almost 4-year old. But he's never asked. Not sure that he's at that stage yet...the stage of thinking to ask or understanding the response. Any advice for when that day comes? I guess it would be pretty easy:
Teddy has two Mommies. You have a Mommy and a Daddy. Every family is different.

Just another day in Sweden.