The kid who's parents think it's cool to let their kid chose their sex.

Greg, dude, you need to get out more.

People have always been discriminated against by mainstream society because they have been raised in a different culture, with different norms, customs, dress, language, food, beliefs. The Muslim woman who wears a burka (they are not all forced to, you know?), the Romany Gypsy, the Amish who gets bullied because it is known that they are absolutely non-violent.

So what are parents to do? Raise their children to conform to mainstream norms and expecations? Should the Black parent in Apartheid South Africa or segregated America have raised their children to accept that they are basically inferior to Whites and to know their place? Should the Native American or Aboriginal Australian not teach their children about their own heritage, culture, language, and birthrights? Should parents of gay children teach them that homosexuality is deviant and wrong? Should the parent of a mixed-race child from a broken home on the estates teach them that they will never amount to anything, because that is society's prejudice?

Screw societal norms. Society is an immature babbling idiot, and a lunatic. It reads the Daily Mail, FFS. The duty of parents is to raise their children to fulfil their fullest potential. Human progress is measured by the questioning and challenging of established norms and beliefs by each new generation.

As for the gender issue: there is lots of psychological research on children who have inadvertently been raised in the wrong gender role because their genitals failed to develop fully to reflect the gender they are. There is also plenty of research on people with gender dysphoria. And the results are this: those children have always know, deep down, what gender they really are. It is often when they become independent adults that they switch to the gender role that feels compatible with how they feel. Parenting makes no difference in this. In gender-neutral environments, research shows, boys and girls will always gravitate to toys and activities associated with their traditional gender roles. Even tomboy-ish girls and effeminate boys have a clear sense of their gender identity, even if that does not conform with that of society.

Research also shows that the most psychologically balanced individuals have both male and female gender traits. 'Extreme' masculinity or femininity tends not to work so well. It is no surprise that cross-dressing occurs typically in traditional males raised in a very traditional gender-divided environment.

Another interesting bit of research: children raised by lesbian parents tend to be more psychologically well-adjusted than children raised by gay or heterosexual parents (who are on an even par with each other). Children raised by lesbian or gay parents are not more likely to become lesbian or gay than children raised by heterosexual parents.

I'm not worried about these kids. They know what they are, and it will express itself naturally in due course. Mainstream society, meanwhile, should take a long, hard look at how it raises its own children (I mean, high heels and thongs for 8-year old girls, WTF?) before it tries to judge how these kids are raised.

 

How do you know what poop taste like?

Are you trolling? I never said the child shouldn't be raised by parents, I asked why should we be sticking our noses into how they raise their child? They are still raising it to become whatever it wants to be, in girls clothes or in boys what the hell is the difference?

Exactly, who says a girl wearing "boys clothes" is going to turn out "different" than a girl wearing "girl clothes"

 

How they raise the child shouldnt be just how they want. If parents were raising their children with racist views is that ok? If their raising them to be criminals is that ok?

 

Please read the above post:

 

I feel I've been vindicated by Nexxo. And there is no greater level of vindication that the all seeing Nexxo.

 

These parents aren't doing that, they're imposing their views on it. You cant tell me cross dressing is their fullest potential, not that its a bad thing, but as a child who doesn't understand the world, you're gonna be held back a bit in life, meaning you wont fulfil your potential.

 

You have a very crude and dysfunctional view of this. How is cross-dressing making a difference to how a child can reach their full potential? Other than the bigoted opinions of people like you?

 

I didn't say cross dressing was the problem.

Cross dressing won't stop them reaching their full potential. Bullying will. And unfortunenately, cross dressing kids will be bullied.

Plus sports are quite hard in a dress.

 

Please understand this: KIDS WILL ALWAYS BE BULLIED. If it is not for their dress sense, then for their (lack of) intelligence, for being fat, or thin, or rich, or poor, or being a boy, or a girl, or being black, or white, or ginger, or wearing glasses or having goofy teeth. It's the human condition at work.

What you can do is raise your children not to accept bullying as the norm. Not to buy into the prejudices of the majority, but to have the confidence to be who you are and live by your own principles (provided they do not inflict deliberate harm on innocent others).

Last time I looked (which admittedly was in secondary school), girls wearing dresses was not an impediment to them doing sports. Apparently they simply change into appropriate clothing. Who'd have thunk?

 

I hadn't thought of that, and was entirely serious.

 

Haha, oh dear.

They aren't encouraged to cross dress, they aren't encouraged to not cross dress. They are encouraged to do what THEY want. If that means they are bullied maybe they will change what they want. It's about them expressing themselves, how they want to.

People wearing 'feminine' clothing can play sports too. My field hockey team has a man, called Sarah (formerly Pete) on it. He gets on fine, surrounded by mates. I'm 15, and my mates and I have utmost respect for him, being who he wants. He's an ex-international player so it does not stop you achieving what you want, even on the sporting side.

 

So as a parent, you should just let your kid do what they want, and let them deal with the consequences? at 5?
5 year olds cant make their own informed decisions, anyone who thinks they can clearly cant remember being 5.

Again, I wasn't being serious, it was a joke.

 

It's not harming them, is it? If it was harmful, such as putting a fork in a socket, I would say no obviously. Choosing what you want to wear or look like is harmless and is a personal choice. Do you want your parents to dictate how you look now?

 

Now? Not really.
As a child? Yes.

 

Parents should give their children freedom, but also honesty, and guidance.

I think children should be given freedom to make decisions, be it clothing, hairstyles, toys, some choice with lunch & dinner, etc, but with guidance and honesty of course. Without any guidance or boundaries, then there wouldn't be any parenting basically, and things would just get out of hand.

I don't see the harm in teaching a child what gender they are, it's just a basic piece of honesty and guidance. It does seem a little cruel to me, to not inform a child what gender they are.
I'm definitely not saying the parents should try to force any stereotypical types of clothing, toys, or hairstyles, i'm just talking about the child being aware if they are a boy or a girl. I doubt anyone in this thread was ever denied this knowledge. There was a mention of an awkward incident at a toy store in the report, I wonder how much confusion comes up everyday in all sorts of situations

I assume the child knows it's name, has been read stories, watched cartoons, taught how to play games, etc. Why not teach the child what gender they are

 

Right, home schooled so there's minimal outside contact. Surrounded by unusual family. How is (s)he ever going to be able to decide or even figure out what a particular gender is like?

There are other ways to encourage personal development. I really don't think this form of gender neutrality is one of them since you can't actually choose a gender. And saying they don't want to choose for their kid is nuts. They already did. They picked (s)he and potentially freak for the rest of their neighbors.

They could have just raised the kid normally. Home schooled and everything, external influences would be controllable. Encourage self confidence to the point where she feels its normal to take up rugby or boxing or he's happy to do knitting or pole dancing if he so fancies.

 

First, children don't need to be taught what gender they are. They know. The problem only arises when people tell them what gender they are, based on their genital characteristics, or tell them how they should express that gender, based on cultural norms and expectations.

Second, this does not even become an issue until the child is old enough to start developing gender-specific traits and identity (which happens well before puberty). By that stage children typically start to identify with, and gravitate towards peers, clothes, toys and activities that correspond with the gender they feel they are.

Home schooling makes no difference. Children are exposed to concepts of gender by seeing their gendered parents (duh!), other gendered adults and their gendered playmates. They see it in story books and on television. Their world is drenched in gender.

I really don't see what the problem is. All the parents are doing is let the child work out for themselves what gender they are. They are not forcing a gender role on it, nor are they preventing it from experiencing genders and gender roles. They are just not saying: you should be a boy or girl. We can't always go by the presence or absence of external genitalia.

 

The real scandal here is that they named him/her Storm.

Personally I support the decision BTW although I can't help but wonder if the parents aren't inadvertently pushing the kids into it, making a big song and dance is a poor way fo going about it

 

that's a boy