Icing on the Cake

~66~

Calum looked at me after she left. “We need to make it very clear to her that we are a parenting team from now on and she no longer has all the say.” He said.

“I agree.” I said, feeling uncomfortable in the situation.

We walked downstairs, where we saw Julia sitting at the table, eating a piece of fruit from the bowl in the center of the table.

I called the translate service we subscribed to, then put the phone on speaker. How it worked was we would speak, then the translator operator would translate it into Ukrainian for Julia, then she could speak in Ukrainian and it would be translated into English for us.

“We need to talk to you.” I said, and the translator translated to her.

“About what?” We found out she said back.

“We want to clarify that we all are the parents.” Calum said. “It’s not just you making the decisions anymore.”

“I understand that.” Julia said.

“Is there anything you want to talk to us about?” I asked.

“I don’t understand why you gave Adam a doll.” Julia said.

“I didn’t really give it to him.” I clarified. “I let him pick out a toy and he picked out that one.”

“Why did you let him have that one?” Julia asked.

“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked.

“Because he’s a boy.” Julia said back.

“So what?” Calum said. Her predication towards gender roles was bringing back some bad memories for us.

“There’s no gender attached to toys.” I said to Julia. “It’s just a piece of silicone plastic.”

Julia didn’t say anything. “Why is it that important to you?”

“Because it’s just a toy.” I explained, trying to stay as calm as possible. “I’m not going to let the gender he was assigned dictate what toys he plays with. Both Adam and Anastasia can play with whatever they want.”

“At least they have toys now.” Julia admitted.

I thought it was going to be hard to bond with the children, but it was hard to get on the same page with Julia.

Notes