Bernstein said since some people perceive her birth story and family as unusual, they sometimes feel justified in asking her inappropriate questions. One of Bernstein’s mothers gave birth to her with the help of a sperm donor. It’s just something I’m so used to saying, and I don’t even realize how often I say it, but it just comes up so often.” “I don’t think I’ve ever felt weird about saying I have two moms. “When you’re talking to someone else, people just assume you have one mom and one dad,” Bernstein said. “There’s not supposed to be an ‘s’ there,” the teacher said.Īs the daughter of same-sex parents, Bernstein said misunderstandings like this one occur frequently, and she often finds herself having to explain her family structure to strangers. The teacher, assuming Bernstein had made a spelling error, told her to change the word “moms” to “mom.” When asked by her fourth-grade teacher to write about her favorite weekend activity, Shoshana Bernstein ’22 chose to describe how she enjoyed cooking with her moms.
