I've been lurking for a few months, this is my first actual post.
My DS is aged 2 and he loves to dress up in princess/fairy dresses - both at nursery and at home (I have an older DD who has plenty for him to choose from!).
I am pretty relaxed about this - I do let him put the dresses on and play in them as he wishes. My DH on the other hand does not feel comfortable with it at all, and we have had several conversations where he has said that we shouldn't allow it.
The main reason that he gives me for that is that he thinks that it is embarrassing and that people will laugh at our son. I know that it does often draw comments from family members etc, but in my view they are either positive comments, or from people from an older generation to whom it does seem unusual, and I ignore these comments.
I did chat with his nursery teacher last year, and she said that most boys in the class also enjoyed wearing dresses, but I think that my DH thinks that I am making this up, and that DS is the only boy who does it.
My DH and I have just had another discussion whereby he expressed his desire for me to stop allowing DS to wear dresses, and I expressed my reluctance to do so, as I see it purely as a natural phase, and one that does no harm. I really fear that by stopping him from doing this, it would really confuse him and not be a positive thing. We both always end up bitter and twisted about this subject, and I feel upset about it, both as I feel sad for my DS and also a bit judged for my parenting approach.
On just about every other aspect of parenting we are aligned - it is just this one area where we have differing views.
I'm not looking for my DH's view to be flamed, or necessarily mine to be vociferously supported. What I am after is any resources or evidence that I could give to my DH to try and get him to take a more relaxed approach.......... any books or websites that I could refer to, for example?
Thanks.