To be shocked at how my friend responded to her daughter?

[dorindasinger]

Was over visiting my friend today as I hadn't seen her since October. Was having a nice visit and her 9 year old daughter was telling me about the gifts she got. She then came down the stairs with a massive, oversized teddy she got. I said, 'oh wow, he's big, what's his name?' To which her daughter replied, 'non binary'.

My friend then laughed and said, 'where did you hear that?' The daughter replied saying she didn't know. Her mum then replied, 'well don't be silly, that's not a real thing', her daughter replied, 'some people are non binary', and mum responded, 'I know but it's still silly and it's still made up'. And that was that.

I didn't say anything, but was quite taken aback. Regardless of opinions and thoughts on the whole gender thing, surely we should be teaching our children to respect it. I would be worried now that she goes to school voicing those opinions too. For instance, 'my mum said non binary is silly and not real'. That wouldn't be great.

AIBU?

@TheMightyOak 😂😂

It’s lovely to see how progressive children are now. I was so inspired recently to see my niece playing with her dolls (which, fyi, is how I know she’s my niece and not my nephew) and telling one of them to “die in a grease fire, TERF bitch!”. This generation is so much more open-minded than their parents.

I trust your niece had ‘Ken’ dressed in a rubber mask, dousing zimself in stale urine?

It’s the little details which make creative play so rewarding.

Hahahaha oh my god that is so funny!!! You are hilarious and oh so quirky and unique. Hahahah someone get me an ambulance, this is SUCH A FUNNY POST.

No she didn’t, but, thank you. That’s her birthday present sorted.

I mean technically, technically unless it's the sort of bear you don't want kids playing with then surely it's a eunuch?

non bearnary

😂🤣

Well, eunuchs are covered by the new WPATH standards, so it’s a valid QTips+ identity.

Whereas yours is just bull bearshit?

Oh sorry to hear that @ofwarren - that bug going round is nasty. Early night sounds great.

Non bearnary is fantastic 😂😂

Well the Google search for 'non binary bear' was surprising..
Hopefully that's NOT what the OPs friends Daughter has 😬

bearworldmag.com/opinion-being-a-non-binary-bear-in-a-toxic-masculine-space/

Dunno about ‘covered’. That there bear in the T shirt has no pants on. 🐻

I 💯 totes believe you, OP.

Oh holy Mary, Mother of God...I clicked on that heedlessly and now it’s on my iPad record and there’ll be knocks on the door at 3am, since I’m far too old for that kind of caper, and I’ll be arrested..😳

Surely at the very least the bear should wear a teddy...

<non-bearnary snort>

Dunno about ‘covered’. That there bear in the T shirt has no pants on. 🐻

Makes an ideal prop for story time with OP’s niece... “Shall we read the ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ again tonight?”

YABVU. The mum is right and thankfully teaching her daughter correctly.

The parent may or may not have believed non-binary was made up...that's gonna happen so I'm shocked that you're shocked. Could it also be the parent felt that gender was quite a meaty subject to be causally discussing whilst in your company and had just cut the conversation short with plans to discus later?

I said, 'oh wow, he's big, what's his name?'

Why did you automatically assume a stuffed bear was MALE?

Someone needs to remove the spoke from their own eye…

YABU your friend just told her daughter the truth is silly and made up.

Yes, this really happened. Thanks OP for showing us the way.

I'm willing to bear witness that this definitely, definitely happened.
And then everybody stood up and clapped (their paws).

Non-bearnary would make more sense as a name, shurely? 🤷‍♀️

Ah sorry, I’ve been beaten (bearten?) to it. That’ll teach me not to RTFT.