Though he’s kicked them around plenty in his book, the Gay Uncle is always pleased to see his friends Kate and Dylan, who have moved out to L.A. (where he is currently stationed as part of the national GUG book tour). This is not only because he ABSOLUTELY ADORES them and their kids Max and Athena, but because they’re always full of confessional parenting stories that he can then claim and make fun of. Last night was a perfect example.
During after-dinner drinks at the world’s greatest bar, Gunc was gushing about the joys of the outsider position of “Uncle”, and relating his delight in how open his former preschool students were with him in discussing the struggles and pressures they’re facing in their adolescence. In response, Kate was bemoaning the difficulty she often has as a mom in getting her five year old son to tell her anything about his day. As G.U. spells out in his book (Chapter 11: Drop and Ditch-Starting School) it can often be difficult for a child to answer open ended questions like “What did you do in school today?” An entire day is an enormous and amorphous amount of time to a young kid, and so the question lacks the concrete and specific grounding they need in order to access relevant information. (Akin to asking an adult, “So, what do people do in America?”) Plus, kids really enjoy–and deserve–having aspects of their life that are separate from their parents. But every so often, kids just get in what we in the ed biz call a “talky” mood, and they spontaneously volunteer information about their lives.
Apparently Max was in one of these the other afternoon at pick-up time, pulling on his mom’s graphic-t and slouchy suede purse, and wanting to explain the complexities of some interaction he’d had with his peers, and some kind of growth he’d undergone as a result. Of course, the roadway of parent/child communication is a two way street, and at that moment, Kate was busy doing some important social networking with some of the other mommies. “I turned to him, my son,” she confessed last night, “and told him, I don’t have time for this right now. Tell me later. He walked away with his head down. And of course, when I asked him about it later, in the car, he didn’t want to talk, or had forgotten, or was withholding.” She sighed. “I can’t believe, the thing I ask for the most, when it’s offered up, I reject it.” G.U. nodded sympathetically, and thought, Isn’t that just like life?
Your Tongue Here
The Gay Uncle was asked an interesting question during one of his myriad radio interviews yesterday. “Since you seem to have no problem dishing out advice to your family and friends, do you also feel obliged to give pointers to strangers?” G.U. replied that, aside from telling slacker moms and dads (in the playground where he used to take his students) to curb the offensive behavior of their demon spawn, this was not his usual practice. But he did remember one time when he felt compelled to intrude. This was when he was on a field trip with a group of his students, heading home from the Empire State Building via public transportation (as always), and spotted an adorable three year old girl on the 6 train engaged in a rather problematic behavior: she was standing up, holding on to the subway pole with both hands–and licking it repeatedly with her tongue. Gunc leaned in to her casually unobservant mother, and said, “I’m really not sure that she should be doing that.”
Reunited
To celebrate the publication of his book, the Gay Uncle held a reunion yesterday at the school he used to run in Manhattan’s East Village. He wasn’t sure what to expect. He’d left the classroom some years ago, and since people move around quite a bit, he worried that his address lists were hopelessly out of date. Plus, he wondered how many (now) sullen/hip New York City teenagers would actually want to spend a sunny weekend afternoon hanging out in their old preschool? Well, not only was he amazed by the 50+ person turnout, he was riddled with absolute GLEE in talking to the kids, who had transformed from amazing little people into super-cool, intelligent, interesting and iconoclastic musicians, artists, animators, political activists, skaters, filmmakers, dreamers, and students. Plus, for someone whose own hair made the journey from black, to blue, to green, to orange during his years in the classroom–and who once held a poll in which his young charges voted on what color he should dye it next–Gunc was pleased to see that virtually every shade of Manic Panic hair dye was represented. His hat is off to all the LMDN grads. You kids are AMAZING.
Gay Uncle Reads at NYC Public Institution; God Punishes with Stormy Wrath
The Gay Uncle read from his book at the Children’s Museum of Manhattanyesterday. The event was well attended, and well received–by the people in the audience, that is. Apparently the (wo)man upstairs was not so pleased at the idea of having a Swish Tío tell “normal” folks how to raise their kids, and responded with a typhoon. Coincidence? Evidence thus far points to “no”. But more readings will ensue around the country over the next few weeks. We’ll have to wait and see if natural disasters follow G.U.’s path.
Radio Day
You can hear your favorite Gay Uncle on Marconi’s wondrous wireless device all day long today. Just tune in to one of the myriad stations around the country on which he’ll be interviewed and listen to him make a total fool of himself.