Special Topics in Being a Parent: A Queer and Tender Guide to Things I’ve Learned about Parenting, Mostly the Hard Way

An illustrated guide of practical parenting advice informed by queer experiences for anyone doing the work of parenting, from the author and the illustrator of Special Topics in Being a Human

Being a parent is enormously joyful, but it is also an enormous amount of work. Parenting requires you to make dozens of decisions a day, every one of which in some way shapes the person your child will grow into. It can be difficult to know in these moments whether you’re on the right track. Progressive parents especially can feel adrift when caregiving in ways that were not modelled for them.

From S. Bear Bergman--advice columnist, educator, and queer dad with fifteen years of parenting under his belt--comes Special Topics in Being a Parent, a witty and insightful collection of child-rearing tips for those in search of realistic ideas about screens and lunches that don’t come with a side order of judgment. Using his own choices--and errors--by way of example, Bergman offers suggestions for various stages of the parenting journey, from asking ＂Are we ready to have a kid?＂ to talking with children about diversity and difference, to questioning gender expectations placed on both kids and parents. With plenty of humor and compassion, and featuring charming illustrations by Saul Freedman-Lawson, this guide helps parents to live their parenting values while enabling their kids to grow their capacities, understand the world, and above all, feel connected and loved.

S. Bear Bergman is an author, storyteller, educator, and the founder and publisher of children’s book press Flamingo Rampant, which makes feminist, culturally diverse children’s picture books celebrating LGBT2Q+ kids and families. He writes creative non-fiction for grown-ups, fiction for children, and the advice column ＂Asking Bear＂ and was the co-editor (along with Kate Bornstein) of Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation and the author of Special Topics in Being a Human (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021).

Saul Freedman-Lawson is a zine-maker, camp counsellor, bookseller, and the illustrator of Special Topics in Being a Human (Arsenal Pulp). They make art about queerness, transness, Judaism, disability, childhood, and other things they find beautiful and difficult. They like to draw people with big noses and big genders.