Constantly Outted

The other day when I was hanging out with my mother for Mother’s Day, we went into a little toy store in my hometown that she wanted to check out.  One of her daycare parents owns it so when we went in there mom immediately struck up conversation.  We both looked around and before we left, mom said to the owner “you know Ashley is going to get pregnant soon.  She is using donor sperm.”  Although I appreciate her support in this process, it totally caught me off guard.  I mean, if I was in a hetero relationship she wouldn’t feel the need to blurt out “she is going to have lots of sex to make a baby.”  Why would you have to explain the means by which you are conceiving? 

That little incident with mom the other day got me thinking about the whole thing.  I am sure that everyone that I come in contact with in the next year will ask about the father and my response is going to be… hum, that is a tough question.  I don’t want to have to explain the donor sperm thing at every turn but I guess I don’t have much of a choice.  Kristen is the other parent, unequivocally, but somehow that isn’t an acceptable answer for the question at hand.  I suppose I just need to come up with a simple, quick response in order to avoid any further questions like “how does the whole process work?” or my personal favorite, “Why not just go have sex with a man?”  This is going to take some thought…

- Ashley