Parenting and Raising Children in LGBTQ+ Families Across the Long Arc

Parenting in LGBTQ+ families involves long-term work across identity, community, schools, and the children's adolescence. This applied course teaches that integration through case-based modules. By the end of this course you will be able to support your children's understanding of family across childhood, navigate community and school contexts, support your children through the social complexities of adolescence, and sustain your own well-being across the long arc. What you will learn: - Approaches to supporting children's understanding of their family in age-appropriate ways - Approaches to handling questions about donors, surrogates, or birth parents - Approaches to school enrollment and ongoing engagement including handling biased interactions - Approaches to community connections including LGBTQ+-affirming groups - Approaches to supporting children through adolescence including social complexity - Approaches to extended family relationships including ongoing dynamics - Approaches to your own well-being and partnership across the long arc The course is structured around six applied modules. Each produces a written artifact: a family story conversation plan, a school engagement plan, a community map, an adolescence support plan, an extended family reflection, and a long-term well-being plan. This course is written for LGBTQ+ parents thinking across the long arc. By the end you will have moved from the questions of becoming parents to the sustained work of raising children in your family.