Men's Group

Not the part about not liking kids; I mean, in that case it's no great loss- but the societal stuff around abuse and those abhorrent stereotypes about gay men.

I've written a bit about looking at that stuff from the other angle; i.e. that of a parent who is obviously wary about ANY excessive "interest" in my kids that could indicate something bad. And yes, absolutely, men are looked at far more skeptically than women- even by me, and I'm a man... but certainly not, in my case at least, Gay men more than Hetero ones. It's more ALL men, and one can talk it into the ground, it's still there.

But the fact is, kids' lives these days are often so programmed, it's pretty unlikely that one would just casually find themselves in a situation with someone else's kids that might even lead to raised eyebrows. Usually in most coach or mentor situations you are with a whole bunch of people- most parents aren't, like, "here, random adult, take my kids off all by yourself" ...obviously, if you're the babysitter, it's a different story.

And again, I think some of the social stuff you get- unfortunately- is tied to where you are in the Country. I just don't think the blue areas of the West Coast are nearly as backwards-ass as some places in this country can be around this stuff.

Of course, at the end of the day (Hi, Bonobo! ) if you don't WANT to be around kids or have that role model or mentoring interaction, that's cool- it's not for everyone, and frankly if I weren't a parent probably the last thing I would be doing is spending large amounts of time around little kids (if I never hear that damn Raffi CD again, it will be too soon) ... but like I said, it makes me sad that there is this wariness specifically tied to these horribly bigoted and awful stereotypes.