Otis and Alice: A family with two moms?

Goals

To show the diversity of different types of families ;
To highlight the similarity of the daily routine of all types of families.
Otis and Alice: A family with two moms?

Brief description of the issue

There are multiple family settings: homoparental, heterosexual, one parent, etc. However, within children’s literature and our interactions with children, it is often taken for granted that the child has a mother and a father living together, although this heteronormative model doesn’t represent the reality of a great number of children. To deconstruct family stereotypes, this tool shares a few tools and activities to showcase a variety of family settings to children.

Heteronormativity: Heteronormativity is the belief that heterosexuality, predicated on the gender binary, is the norm or default sexual orientation. It assumes that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between people of opposite sex.

Otis and Alice is a book written in Quebec for children from ages 4 to 8. Through a tender and amusing story, it is intended to help those working with children to deal with the subject of gay parenting in the global context of family diversity. This resource guide which can be used in conjunction with the book Otis and Alice will help you to explore this modern-day issue with children and parents. This guide can also be used without the book or with other books about family diversity.

Click on the link below to download the document, put together by the LGBT Family Coalition, which presents two different activities you can lead with your group after reading together the story of Otis and Alice.

Document

Otis and Alice- a family with two moms?
File size: 1 MB (application/pdf)