To ignore my three year old daughter when she says she’s a boy?

[Bullbreedbliss]

How do I approach this? Do I ignore? If I say she’s a girl she just argues with me. Am I doing damage by dismissing her?

Ignore and change the subject, fish fingers for tea and CHOCOLATE for pudding!!!!!

My youngest wanted to be a girl because he liked using a hair clip as a sensory toy. Now he wants to be a cat because you don't have to go to school and you are allowed to hiss at people if they annoy you.

The best way to stop an argument is to agree with the opposition. They have nothing to argue against then

🤣 my three year old girl has been a fairy, horse and daddy pig today. It’s a bit of fun, arguing with a three year old!? Give me a break i need to live on a desert island I can’t deal with it anymore dear god 🤦‍♀️

My three year old used to walk round in my heels saying he was mummy. He's 16 now, definitely not mummy by any stretch of the imagination. It's all learning about their environment, themselves and who is in their world. It saddens me that social media has made us question how to handle our kids just going through these normal stages in life.

My nearly three year old has insisted that she's actually a cat for basically the past year - we have a routine where I call her a banana and she tells me that she's a cat. Her brother has copped on to this and now announces that he's a fresh green bean.

My 3 year old was an astronaut. A German shepherd. A tree. A snowflake. A dinosaur. A humpback.

Ofcourse you ignore!

My now-11 year old was definitely a puppy for about 4 months when he was three 😁. We kind of went along with it without confirming that he was indeed a dog 😂😂.
He's now pretty sure he's human.
I would probably say, i thought you were a girl, why are you saying you're a boy, silly sausage?

My son calls himself a girl all the time. I'm also a boy apparently. He finds it funny, he's just being daft!
I normally correct him but he laughs me off 🙈 I'm sure he'll grow out of it! I'm picking a loosing battle to make a big deal out of it now!

My daughter did this for a whole year between two and three. Was adamant she was a boy. She has two older brothers so I talked a lot about 'let's get the boys from school' and things like that so I think it was natural for her to want to be included as one of the boys. I either ignored or just laughed it off and told her she was a girl.

She's 7 now and has no queries about her gender identity and is often exasperated by her brothers (and other boys she knows) these days rather than wanting to be just like them!

I find it worrying that some parents do take it as 'fact' when a young child says they're the opposite gender rather than just taking it with a pinch of salt like so many other things toddlers ramble on about!

My son thinks hes a stormtrooper sometimes. He also says am princess from starwars while am doing stuff around the house.

I'd ask why she thinks she's a boy and correct her.

We had this about 3ish for a week on and off. It was because "i like blue" and "i have toy cars". It was a good opportunity to point out that lots of girls like blue and cars, no colour or toy is just for boys/girls. Obviously something somewhere had told her otherwise.

We then have backed up since a very early age that boys have penis's and girls have vulvas. Just clear fact in conversation. You can't argue with biological fact, even at 3.

Shes now nearly 4 and knows shes a girl. She still loves cars, blue and dinosaurs. But she also love frozen, dolls and doing things as "the girls" so a phase clearly.

My 2 year old is a bear cub, and has been insisting on and off for months that her name is Olivia (it isn't!).

My youngest went through a stage where his favourite colour was pink and he told everyone he was a girl. We just said cool mate, be whatever you want to be. He soon grew out of it.

Good to see that so many others were also dogs as small children
I also desperately wanted to be a boy as a child but that was because boys seemed to have so much more freedom - I just wanted to be treated equally and not have to wear dresses and skirts.

DS is 6 and was absolutely devastated recently to find out that boys can't get pregnant, and cried and said he wanted to be a girl so he can have a baby.
He also has been various characters over the years like Super Mario and Link, and at 3 or 4 he constantly told everyone that he was 10 years old. For things like that I've always just said something along the lines of "that's nice dear"

This.

If it's worrying you give her different things to be. She can be a doggy, a firefighter and anything else that pops into your head.

Try characters from her favourite stories.

She's 3 and knows fuck all. Playing pretend is how she learns.

This is awful, why are the adults in this kids life going along with it? They are completely failing her by letting her carry on and not trying to distract her and humouring her.

Did her parents encourage her? I wanted to be a cat, a seal and a train driver at that age, my sister was a bear called “Sprod” for 2 years. Our parents let us crack on and we got bored. There must be a reason this girl persists! Could she be delusional and actually believe it?

Does the girl get bullied? Do her parents not realise that a phase is short term and not 5 years?

I really hope someone gets this kid some help before the habit is so ingrained and they can’t separate reality from imagination.

Yes my little one used to say this even younger than 3 and it was obvious to me it was because she likes playing with boys and doing things she was learning were boys things (not from us but you can't completely shut out society's warped views). So I did alot of work encouraging and correcting 'just for boys' type messages. She grew out of it and learnt to be confident in her own choices. Now my little boy loves glittery shoes, rainbows and wearing skirts. He also likes hair clips. I let him be who he is. I don't think he is a girl; he just understandably likes pretty sparkly things and skirts are fun to twirl. Don't make it a thing, let them know things are for everyone not just boys or girls, and then see how they are as they mature. It's quite normal, it's just society that drums into kids if they act a certain way it's for a certain sex/gender

I used to say I wanted to be a boy when I was 8. For a good few months I think. I was quite serious about it, I remember even writing my boys name on a test we did at school and my teacher laughing his head off!
I had older brothers and read a lot of Enid Blyton where the boys get to have all the fun. Plus I think I just didn't feel comfortable with what I thought being a girl was then (I was only girl not on choir, only girl on the football team).
Luckily my parents just did what other people recommend and didn't make a fuss, just a 'that's nice dear' type thing.
Scares me what would have happened nowadays if teachers and parents started saying I might be trans, or giving me special attention for counselling. Telling me I was actually a boy in the wrong body etc. I really think I would have gone with it and ended up a very confused teenager.

If she says it again , ask her if she means she wants shorts not skirts, or which colour she likes best.
Find out which things she likes, it could be she wants a teddy not a doll..

My DD (who is actually quite bright) couldn’t tell the difference between boys and girls until she was 2. I would just ignore it, if you correct her she’ll just dig her heels in. Mines been a cat for a while now.

I would also look at the messages she’s absorbing. We lived in quite a conservative country when my eldest was little and DH had to keep explaining to shop staff that DD was not interested in a dolly and that she wanted a truck because they kept trying to take he rover to the girls isle. Or if she was looking at something someone would come over and tell us the girls aisle was “over there”. Incredibly frustrating. She was actually very girly in a lot of ways, nail polish, hair stuff, she just really liked construction vehicles.

My sister used to say this all the time when she was a kid, rejected girly things, wanted to be a boy etc. luckily this was the 70s so was seen as a tomboy not trans. God help her if she was that age now. As a sixty something she’s hundred per cent female, never alludes to being male, happily married to a man. For most kids it’s just a phase.

My four year old has been a princess and a fairy this week. Why do you need to correct her?

Don't worry. I used to say I was going to be a man when I grew up. I got over it.My DD was convinced for ages she'd be a unicorn one day. She also got over it.
It's normal. She's either role playing or has possibly worked out it's a good way to wind you up. Just say that's nice and then ignore.