But why all this rubbish about “listen to the child”. Yes, of course, listen. But that doesn’t mean go along with all they say in life changing ways! Why start all these conversations with children about gender? Ideally kids up to 5 are not even aware of their own sex to any extent. They should be busy finding out about the world, playing, interacting with family. We “gender” our kids too quickly. I remember the horror of one mum when I put a pink beaker in front of her 4yr old son on a tea date, I didn’t think twice about it. I had a set of colours and mine drunk out of whatever was clean. But no, “he won’t drink out of that!” I was told.
I’m sick of hearing how relieved transitioning kids are finally able to get hair cut/let hair grow, or paint their bedrooms pink/blue or exchange their dinosaurs for unicorns and vice versa. At 5, this is what a child means when they say they “want to be a boy/girl”. They just don’t like the toys.......