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If your child exhbited atypical gender tendencies?

Freiheit · 2011-07-02 20:35:33

Would you try to change them, to redirect them? or would you allow them to be themselves?. Such as boy prefering pink or dolls or make up or a girl preferring blue, or cars or or tractors etc?. And if you would attempt to redirect them why?. I don't mean the above in any critical or judgmental tone, I'm just curious as to…

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#32 08-07-2011 8:28am
metrovelvet

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I dont think there is anything "atypical" about tom boys or about boys playing with kitchens or making jewellry or anything like that.

However, I do think its does get into the range of atypical when a girl refuses to go to school unless she can go to the boys school and refuses to use the ladies room because she genuinely thinks she is a boy or vice versa in the case of a boy.

Cat melodeon brought up an interesting point about the social conditioning of boys. For whatever random reason, I happen to know a lot more moms of young boys than I know moms of young girls, maybe because I have a boy myself? But also in the playschool there seem to be a lot more boys around. And I have noticed alot, with some exceptions that the moms of boys tend to be more permissive of boys pushing and jumping on each other 'ah sure they are boys!" And so there seems to be a tolerance for it. Now, there is no man in this house so my son doesnt get this rough and tumble stuf so often associated with boys and it was a struggle for him in creche to negotiate the physicality of other young boys who are used to it. Maybe some of the moms of girls can comment?

My brother who has all sorts of marshall arts behind him was showing my four year old a few tricks and my four year old decided to try them out on me, well my brother steps in and says "ah no you can't do that to girls! No hitting girls." Later that afternoon, an airtricity salesman came around and the door was open and my son slams the door in the man's face. I said, "what did you do that for?" "But it wasnt a girl mommy."

In my experience so far, the gender messages have come from other males, not so much from the women.

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