Yesterday I saw the interview on 'This Morning' regarding the parents who pulled their child out of school because a "boy" went to school wearing a dress and identifying as a female.
It's something I have been batting back and forth about writing about and it's something that doesn't sit right with me.
I am a Mother to a girl and a boy. Lucas is 3 and Iris is nearly 11 months. Lucas is one of these children that has always been allowed to choose his own path and his own loves. He has worn dresses during dress up, bought pink hoovers in the Disney store for his 2nd birthday and we have never pushed anything upon him boys or girls, we let him find himself. Of course when we went to buy his clothes we bought him "boys" clothes as naturally you do buy them jeans and tees instead of dresses but toys were always neutral and as he got older we got him to choose his own clothes.
Lucas has naturally formed into a "typical boy." Lucas adores trains, planes, cars and dinosaurs, he likes boys clothes and he is a boy. He still likes to wear a princess dress, play with dolls and likes pink t-shirts and jeans. He doesn't care. He says his favourite colour is blue and thats his decision and something he's decided by himself.
I actually love that Lucas gets his and her mixed up and usually boys are hers and girl's are hims. He wouldn't care whether he was playing with a boy, girl, transgender, gay, straight, bi, black, white, asian, christian, muslim, ect... child. He just wants everyone to be his best friend and i'm so proud of that and him.
There is so much ignorance in the world and it's horrible that if Lucas wanted to wear a dress to school, that i'd be made to feel like I was opening him up to the world of bullying and children would mock them. Children may mock him but that's down their upbringing. Children are innocent and have no idea about the "wrongs and rights" of the world. They don't know about the horrible issues that surround the world and the baddies and hurt that people feel. I believe that racism, homophobia, ect is taught to them. They don't just start hating on people for being different to them unless they've heard or picked it up from somewhere.
When Iris came into the world I was ecstatic and of course bought her "girls" clothes, bows for every outfit, little pink sleepsuits and beautiful frilly dresses but I also bought leggings and tees and lots of navy and monochrome because thats us! As she gets older and we take her shopping and she can chose her own clothes like Lucas if she wants to pick up a blue dinosaur jumper from the "boys" section then so be it. Iris can get that.
If either of my children sat down and said "Mummy, Daddy I am the wrong gender," then it's something we would support completely. We've never pushed Lucas to be a boy or Iris to be a girl and of course we'd never try to push Lucas to be a girl or Iris to be a boy. We've always encouraged them to be who they are and like what they like.
It hurts my heart to hear that there are parents out there willing to pull their child out of school because of a transgender child and suggest that, that child should be in a different school. So much of that is discrimination.
Let you kid be them and don't be an ass.
