4. We grew up quickly.

It takes a village to raise a child, as the saying goes, but we also learned to help out when we could. We taught ourselves to cook to take the load off mom, forced ourselves to clean up to help lola out around the house. Seeing how devoted the women who raised us were made us work that much harder. While it wasn’t a conventional childhood, we turned out all the better for it.

3. We don’t settle.

Because we know that we grew up a little differently from the rest of our friends, it just means that we have much higher expectations of the people we choose to be with. We’re not emotionally crippled or incapable of having normal relationships. We just know what we want and we don’t settle for less.

2. We’re sensitive, but not in the way people think.

We started to question our identities early on in life (thanks, Catholic school education!), and so learned to define ourselves outside of what’s “normal.” By age seven, we’d already clued in to the fact that growing up “normal” isn’t always normal, and every family has their own weird dynamic that works for them.

What’s unconventional to you is totally normal to us—in fact, it helped us become more aware and sensitive of the people around us. It helped us realize that everyone lives life a little differently, and that “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Guys who were raised by women aren’t soft, and women who were raised by women aren’t too headstrong and opinionated—we’re just more in touch with both the masculine and feminine sides of our personalities.

1. We get both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to celebrate them.

Our wallets may complain, but we get two holidays (three if you count birthdays) to celebrate the awesome women who raised us. From the bottom of our hearts, today and every day, thank you to the women who managed to be both mother and father to us. You’re amazing, and we couldn’t be more proud.

Share your thoughts about being raised by your female father figures in the comments section below!

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