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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for your advice on how to talk to my 12 year old about gender identity and sexuality?

5 replies

SingleDouble · 03/03/2026 19:12

My 12 year old came to me yesterday and asked me if it was normal that she hadn’t had a crush by her age, because one of her classmates said that they were asexual and she thought maybe that meant that she was. She said the teacher also spoke to them about gender identity and she was sad that, in some cases, people who change genders can’t use the bathrooms of the gender they’ve changed to. We didn’t have long to chat, so I told DD we would make time to discuss these more, but that I can assure her, she’s perfectly normal of course (we talked briefly about the huge scale of normal and it not meaning that you have to be the same as others to be normal).

I would really appreciate some guidance on how to deal with these questions. We will probably chat about it tomorrow, because of work/after school clubs etc, so I want to be as prepared as I can be for any questions that might follow on.

Very grateful from insight from parents of pre-teens/teens on how best to approach this.

OP posts:
SingleDouble · 03/03/2026 19:42

Anyone?

OP posts:
RhaenysRocks · 03/03/2026 19:52

Do not overcomplicate it. Tell then that it's perfectly normal to develop crush feelings at any age or not at all. Gender identity is trickier simply because there are conflicting messages. I teach teens and have two. Personally I emphasise that biological sex is both real and binary. People may prefer to wear whatever, appear as whatever but it doesn't change reality. However, where it is not problematic to do so, it's polite to use preferred names and so on.

I don't know your stance on this OP or what outcome you want, but I would keep lines of communication open, make sure she feels she can talk to you and remind her that 99% of tiktok etc is absolutely bollocking drivel.

Dolphinnoises · 03/03/2026 19:52

I had a tip-off of this situation as it happened to a friend of mine so prepped DD1 before starting secondary that having no sexual feelings to speak of was very normal in your tween years and it just meant you were a child, not asexual. I’d concentrate on that bit first for today and manage the bathroom single sex issue another day. One thing at a time.

Shittyyear2025 · 03/03/2026 19:52

Can you plan a shopping trip that involves a bit of a drive out?

This was my go-to for my kids - kind of a captive audience and amongst the 'what shall we buy' and 'god this music is awful' chat you could throw in 'i was thinking about what you said the other day and...'

I don't think it's necessarily a topic to bring up at home out of the blue (and they can flounce off when it gets weird/embarrassing) but a reassuring moment or two about how it's fine to be how she wants to be, no need to label anything, perfectly ok to change her mind about everything and anything at her age (not just gender and sexuality, but politics, friendship, hair styles, career aspirations etc). Don't tie it down and don't tie yourself in knots.

TiredShadows · 03/03/2026 21:05

I had a lot of conversations around this throughout secondary, my main message was 'You may find X suits you, you might not in a month, that's normal. Part of puberty is all of that is still developing, for some all this is still developing well into adulthood - no rush now"

Due to how these things are taught in school and framed in the media (a rant for another time) I soon added on "You may experience pressure from others to claim some identity publicly, people may try to put a label on you. That is nothing to do with you, that's to make them comfortable. You are not less you, not less 'proud', keeping your developing feelings private. Once you give the information to another, it's out of your hands, you lose control on it, and I don't advise giving it in any situation where you are not free to walk away, which you can't in school."

We discussed crushes as the intense feeling of wanting to be close to someone, not something inherently sexual, and that some people get these at very young age (which is why I'm very clear with mine that crushes aren't automatically sexual), some get crushes around puberty, some start having crushes when they're adults, some people get crushes easily both on people they know and strangers like those they see on TV, some get crushes rarely and only with a close friend, some people never get crushes - doesn't mean they're asexual, some people just have more mellow emotions.

We've had so, so many conversations on different ideas around gender and gender identity, it's ever changing and I'm not less confident on it, but I do remember for the 'can't use changing' sadness, my now 19 year old said exactly that at 12, I said that quite a few people feel that way. Then I asked how she would feel if any guy she knew was changing in the swimming bath locker room and we talked through the feelings. I then showed her a picture of the male changing rooms at the same place which were published empty when they were refurbished - their dividers were only waist high. I asked if she thought any girl she knew would be safe or comfortable changing in there, whatever identity the girl had. We discussed how a lot of changing and toilet facilities are terribly designed for safety, they are the out of the way, leftover spaces with little thought on how to get safety in an emergency. Some places are trying to build safer versions, and we shifted into discussing how could we make spaces safer rather than making it about gender identity. I've found a lot of things around sexuality and even more gender identity can be discussed from another social angle.

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