one of our family *rules*....
(we have very few family rules unlike most other familes. Respect, open communication, acceptance are the only few, no curfews, no questions about sexuality and what you do with it ect., no rules around eating or sleeping etc, etc)
acceptance in one of the *rules*. we have taught this and hope to have modelled it over the many years we have been parents. carin *coming out* to our children seemed the only way we could live within our own family's culture.
I often wonder about tolernace versus acceptance. I don't like *tolerance. It reminds me of *putting up* with someting, someting you don't really like but you have to go along and *put up with* it. I think in our family we strive toward *acceptance* of each of us and in the outside community and beyond. Both of us hope that every one of our kids will have seen this modeled over the years and have the tools to to this in their own adult lives. It is this I think that will eventually make a change in our world.
Louise.
