Just watching Doctors ( I know , I know) but an interesting scenario...

[Nymphadora]

Child is called Moon. Is a boy but mum doesn't tell anyone. Some days is dressed as a boy , some as a girl. Mum believes that child should grow up with total freedom to be whoever they want to be.

If this was someone you knew how would you react/deal with it?

i think we had the writer on here last year.

Even though I wouldnt really agree with it I dont think I would interfere, it would have to be something that the parents decide to do themselves. think most children would decide how they want to be when they got older anyway.

Lol , we probably have loads of soaps written from MN threads

I met a child at work once called Robin with long blonde hair and a pink top. When the dad came up to pay for their meal i said 'Robin was up here [at the counter] chatting to me , she's a lovely girl'

dad answers 'Robin's a boy'
me 'oh, i'm so sorry '
dad 'It's ok, it happens all the time' look in wifes direction

Saw this ep too and at the start it looked like it was going to be an interesting idea about gender stereotypes etc but then they ended it making the mother out to look like she was just doing something 'nutty' because of her own childhood which I felt spoilt it a bit

But if it was someone I knew that I knew well enough to be able to talk about it I think my main point would be gently suggesting whether it would be better to tackle the world influences by not giving the child any identity (when it WILL be imposed anyway, someone will find out the gender and start the whole gender issue at some point) or whether it could be better to 'attack' the problem head-on, 'admit' to the child's biological gender (because that's a fact of life you can't get away from) but bring him up with very strong values that he can do whatever he likes, dress 'like a girl', play with dolls anything and it's fine, but also talk over the issues of being treated differently, just as some people are treated differently because of many factors.

Then I'd have to leave it up to the mum. If much later the child seemed to be in some sort of distress because of the 'no gender' approach then I'd have to bring it up again.

If the mother wasn't a close enough acquaintance to have that conversation I'd just have to point out the practicalities and admit that at some point I'd have to refer to 'Moon' as 'it' or 'the baby/child' and that I meant no offence but having a long conversation where you constantly refer to someone by their name ends up sounding ridiculous