DS dressing up as Elsa

[MyIronLung]

Today DS (3) got an Elsa (from Frozen) dress. He loves it! He was walking around saying that he was so pretty and singing (trying to) Let it go
Before this hes never shown any interest in any kind of dressing up but recently, while watching Frozen, hes been commenting on how pretty and sparkly Elsas dress is and that he would like one.
I think he looks so lovely in it. He has no concept of 'boys and girls toys' so to him it's just dressing up. (He also has typically 'girly' toys such as a kitchen, necklace threading beads ect).
He's a 'typical' boy. Boisterous, loves lego, cars, trains, monsters and now Elsa.
My step dad on the other hand is not impressed. He would deny it but he's very homophobic, to him I think he sees it as a gateway dress!

I just wanted To ask, aibu to let DS have and enjoy this dress < disclaimer...I don't think I am >

[AshesOfRoses]

YANBU. Let your DS enjoy it

[WorraLiberty]

Oh please make it stop...

Yes YABU

Yes he'll catch the gays

Yes your step dad is 100% right

etc etc etc

[AshesOfRoses]

Oh, I'm obviously missing something...

[saoirse31]

tbh I always wonder if parents who want their sons to wear dresses are really trying to stealth boast about how pc they are. howevet I wouldn't think anything negative about your d's.

[CaptainAnkles]

He's three. He'll either grow out of it or it's the start of an amazing drag queen career.

[DomiKatetrix]

Ashes I think it's just how often these threads pop up.

[Only1scoop]

Stealth boast a tad....yes you are so pc with the gender neutral costume....'next'

[AshesOfRoses]

MY DS wanted pink pajamas (and got them) at that age. He moved on.

[GlitzAndGigglesx]

Let him enjoy it he's 3. My daughter plays with "boys toys" sometimes such as cars and tractors. No harm

[AshesOfRoses]

Thank you Kate

[BadtzMaru]

Did anyone notice there was a princess dress wearing young boy in one of the christmas ads this year, think it was a supermarket one. Made me think of MN every time it came on.

[MyIronLung]

Worra
I get it. Stupid question (especially as I don't think iabu)

Quite frankly I find it ridiculous that in 2015 this is an issue for anybody.

[haphazardbystarlight]

It's an issue for me and it does make me uncomfortable.

I know that's my issue though.

But I would gently steer DS away from such choices personally!

[WilsonWilsonWoman]

You're making it your son's issue though by 'gently steering' him away surely? And what happens to gentle steering if he insists he wants to make that choice?

[MyIronLung]

Not a stealth boast.

He wanted it, he got it. Nothing to do with me wanting him to have a "gender neutral costume". If he'd wanted a Spider-Man outfit he'd have got that instead and i would've thought he looked lovely in that too. (But I wouldn't have got any homophobic comments from sd about it)

I didn't realise that this was a thing that people boast about. (Must put pics on fb then).

It's simply that sd reaction to it shocked me.

[haphazardbystarlight]

Wilson - when I was 4 I wanted to wear boxer shorts to be like my brother! My mum started giggling and said 'no, they are for boys!'

If (and to date he hasn't) DS had asked for an Elsa dress I'd have laughed and said 'no, it's for girls!'

Hardly making it into an issue.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Perhaps its something that gets posted about a fair bit because there are a fair few strange people about who think "the gay" is contagious and make there feelings known when children are just innocently playing.

Sometimes the parent may be wanting reassurance or sometimes they may find the attitude worth poking fun at.

If its not an unusual circumstance and its something that shed loads of 2/3 yo's do then its quite normal so not really a stealth PC/GN boast. Its kinda like trying to boast about a 1999 vauxhall vectra

[DancingDinosaur]

Elsa dresses are really expensive. So for that yabu. (I'm too tight to hand that much cash over for dressing up stuff.) Nothing else.

[MrsCaptainReynolds]

This could be me, DS3 obsessed with Elsa. The whole pre-school is. Dried him after his bath today and he wanted to wrap the towel around him like Elsa's dress.

[PaleoRules]

haphazard, how is laughing at him and "gently steering him away"? I would have said that's quite a brutal steer tbh!

[IgnoreMeEveryOtherReindeerDoes]

It's a non issue like my 3year old DS insisting on applying lip balm in lipstick shape and insisting it is lipstick to all and sundry that now has to be carried everywhere.

[CassieBearRawr]

Hazard that is bloody depressing. He should be able to wear whatever the fuck he likes. Christ, I hope for his sake he is a cis gendered hetereosexual or I expect he will struggle with a black and white binary attitude like that.

[haphazardbystarlight]

There is a difference though isn't there between laughing at a child in a 'nice' way - because they have been cute or funny or sweet - and in a derogatory manner.

My mum certainly wasn't being brutal when she said boxer shorts were for boys - she just found it cute/funny that I wanted to wear them!