MAPLEWOOD MAN SHAFFRON ON VILLAGEQ

Maplewood's own Robert Shaffron has become a regular contributor to VillageQ, the great website for families of gays and lesbians.

See a taste of his latest work below:

Here’s a nifty little insight I’ve acquired since becoming someone’s parent: if brothers and sisters decided all at once to file Domestic Abuse charges against one another, our justice system would grind to a screeching halt behind the unfathomable backlog of cases.

My sons are the kindest, gentlest, and most considerate children on earth, generally speaking. They’re the sort of kids that, when they spot a bug in the house (let’s not go impugning my housekeeping skills here. You get bugs in your house, too, and quit trying to lie about it) they insist I slide a piece of paper under it and gently release it outdoors where the little buggy can reconnect with its long lost family and go on The View to talk about it.

Except with each other. Then it turns into Mothra versus Joan Crawford.

You know, being a gay family, I had hoped that somehow we could escape the whole Brother-on-Brother violence thing. We’re a peace-loving people, more captivated by flatware than warfare. I (oafishly) imagined our family life to be like one fabulous, festive Gay Pride Parade (except, maybe, for the Dykes on Bikes part), with waves of love (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve, 1955) wafting all over our blissful home. What a schmuck.

Read the rest HERE.