Our Family is the holy family according to a toddler.

The toddler corrected me so many times last week that we had to have a "talk."

You see I kept calling Sean- "Sean"
and Maggie (the dog)- "Maggie"
and herself- "Junia"

and Junia kept correcting me.

"No Mama, I Mary."
or
"No Mama, that Joseph."
or
"No Mama, that horsey."

You see, since Christmas Junia has been playing some version of Holy Family. When she cares for one of her baby dolls named Jesus then we all become some part of the nativity.  I am still partnered with Joseph but nameless (appropriate for most women in the gospel don't you think) and she is baby Jesus' Mama and well...to be honest she wasn't that concerned with the make up of the Holy family unit...

But because Maggie doesn't respond to "horsey" and I just can't call my child Mary when I love her name so very much and because sometimes my partner is called by his name.  It just wasn't working for me day in and day out.

So finally Sean, or Joseph, said, "Junia/Mary, I like playing with you but sometimes I want to be Papa or Sean. And sometimes I want to be Joseph too. Okay."

And since then, she's been okay with it.
And we are all back to our regular names.
And baby Jesus is still baby Jesus.