Father's Day hits home for two Estonian dads raising twins
Seven years ago, when Mart Haber and Taivo Piller's twins were born by surrogate, Father's Day came just two weeks later — driving home the new dads' new reality as parents.
"We've been getting Father's Day cards all week, and there was a big concert at school on Friday," Haber said in a family appearance on ETV's "Hommik Anuga" on Sunday.
In Estonia, Father's Day is celebrated in November, and the timing of their first, as dads to newborns Hilda and Hubert, still stands out to him. "Maybe that's when it really sank in that this is how things are now," he recalled.
The twins are now in first grade.
Hilda said she enjoys playing "fun games" with her dad. "The younger someone is, the sharper their eye," she noted, adding that "Taivo and Hubert are better at chess and checkers."
From the start, the couple has spoken openly with their kids about their family. "For children to be born, you need an egg and a sperm cell," Haber acknowledged, noting that they couldn't contribute the egg.
"Then you asked a woman," Hilda chimed in.
Haber said they agreed with the fertility clinic that if the children ever want to find their biological mother, that information must be available to them. Another agency helped them find a surrogate who carried the twins, and they remain in touch with her today.
"The kids are half American — they even have American passports," he added.
Diverse families more common
In kindergarten, Hilda and Hubert had classmates with two mothers. Piller said that reflects how far Estonia has come.
"Estonia has moved so much closer to the Nordic and Western cultural sphere that I don't feel like people really find it strange or stare," Piller said.
The couple has made a conscious effort to limit their kids' screen time, and encouraged them to pick up Chinese from their nanny.
"It seemed like the greatest gift we could give them," Haber said. "Chinese is said to be one of the hardest languages to learn."
Piller said parenthood has changed his perspective on life entirely. "Children make life infinitely happier and so much richer," he said, adding how much more joy they bring to the everyday. "You realize it especially when you've been away from them for a few days — how empty your life would be without them."
As for the future, Hilda dreams of becoming a floral artist. Her brother Hubert, the family jokester, wants to become a penguin.
EKRE chair lashes out over same-sex Father's Day segment
On Monday morning, Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) chair Martin Helme criticized Haber and Piller's segment on "Hommik Anuga," calling it an attack on "real fathers" and "real families."
In a social media post, Helme accused public broadcaster ERR of featuring a gay couple with "purchased children" on taxpayer-funded TV. Though surrogacy is not allowed under Estonian law, it is legal elsewhere. Helme nonetheless called it a crime — one he said prosecutors in Estonia are ignoring.
Helme said Father's Day should honor "fatherhood and the masculinity that forms its foundation," adding that in a country facing a complete birthrate crisis, "fatherhood and, of course, motherhood should be the most important values we highlight, explain and cultivate — what we idealize and champion."
A longtime critic of public media, Helme said ERR is a "left-extremist state propaganda channel dripping with transvestite and homo propaganda," beyond repair and "simply needs to be dismantled."
He concluded that if EKRE returns to power, the party will repeal marriage equality, withdraw from the Istanbul Convention and "shut down ERR entirely — for everything they have done."
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Editor: Annika Remmel, Aili Vahtla
