Who is a Dad?

In the recent weeks, it has come to my attention that there is a serious relationship barrier for the vast majority of the kids in my class. I was given a very artfully crafted paper with the instructions to give it to my dad, which I of course did. As I was presenting this piece of treasure to my actual dad, he posed the question, "Did this little boy mean for me to give his work of art to my husband, Josh?" When given the artwork, I did ask a carefully thought out clarifying question to determine whether my dad, or my husband was to receive the gift. Response: my dad. Then, today, the same little boy gifted another piece of his art to Tess's dad, and since she is only 4, there was no question who the recipient would be. So, I decided to do a little more investigating. During lunch, I grabbed my family photo, and asked the kids to point to which guy in the picture was my dad. I'd guess 85% of the kids pointed to Josh, my husband. The kids who waited to answer picked up that maybe he wasn't really my dad and pointed to my real one. Maybe they're just better at distinguishing age...who knows. I tried to explain the difference between my dad, who raised me, and Josh, my husband that I am married to, except I didn't mention the word marriage or married because the really don't get it even more than dad's and husbands.

The difference is: My dad helped me grow up from a little girl to a big girl. My husband is my very best friend that I didn't meet until I was big, and now we're in love, and I wear rings on my finger to show that we love each other. Their complacent stares assured me that I had made little progress. They're hung up on me not living with my mom, so of course the guy I do live with, is my dad, and the me not having kids thing contributes a little to this mix up, too, I think.