More propaganda from Mermaids

[Qcng]

Came across this in The Mirror, obviously written by Mermaids.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/my-girl-became-youngest-trans-20138358

Not quite sure how to phrase this but it looks to me like another young child's life has been ruined for a publicity stunt, a vanity project for the parents and Mermaids. "Youngest trans child ever".

I simply do not believe most of what was written, ot things actually happened the way the article describes. I just feel really really sad for that young child.

Being a fantasy Disney Princess is not being a girl!

I’ve got a trans child, met a fair few other transparents too. I can’t speak for all of them but the ones I know well enough to discuss it with without exception would jump at the chance of having their child be gay rather than trans. I don’t know why posters seem to think it’s down to parents having strict gender roles either. Mine wore cast offs from older brothers and sisters, played with whatever without anyone batting an eyelid, and has still has had regular, long episodes of absolutely heartbroken crying because they are not the opposite sex, starting from when they were two. Its a constant, and Its awful. Maybe there are some parents that do this as a publicity stunt, I don’t know, but the ones I’ve met are just trying to get by in an extremely shitty situation. Not helped by being told they’ve brought it on themselves by their bad parenting.

Over £25,000 in fines and costs and she just carries on.

Putting kids on dangerous drugs must be awfully profitable for Webberly to be able to just write that off as the cost of doing business.

Putting kids on dangerous drugs must be awfully profitable for Webberly to be able to just write that off as the cost of doing business.

It's odd that all the Webberleys UK registered businesses have virtually no money going through them. They recently set up a business in Belize, but it's unclear where the money was going before then.

More in this thread about the Webberleys' business practices.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3588654-dr-mike-webberley-suspended

Very, I suspect the 'bad parenting' here is primarily the fame hungry aspect. No one wants their child mentally distressed, of course, and I'm sorry to hear you're in that situation. But you surely know your child isn't the opposite sex, don't you? However distressed they get about it? I presume you've been watchfully waiting, and that CAMHS are fully involved? It sounds difficult.

and has still has had regular, long episodes of absolutely heartbroken crying because they are not the opposite sex

Which is why it needs to be nipped in the bud at an early age, and any dysphoria should not be encouraged by parents lying to children.

Watchful waiting rather than affirmation is best practice. Mermaids rip all that apart.

has had regular, long episodes of absolutely heartbroken crying because they are not the opposite sex, starting from when they were two.

What would a child of this age know about the sexes? They might be vaguely aware that boys' and girls' naked bodies look different, but what else? It seems a very young age for a child to decide they hate their body, so I wonder where this distress is coming from?

has had regular, long episodes of absolutely heartbroken crying because they are not the opposite sex, starting from when they were two.

It is as old as Freud's ideas of Penis envy - that some little girls want to be boys (maybe to pee up walls like their Cousins); and some little boys want to be girls - because they want to be able to grow a baby. This doesn't make either trans. It is a stage of childhood.
Of course I had it easy my DD wanted to marry a penguin and be a waterfall when he grew up - absolutely no one could pretend either was possible.

I do dislike some of the parent blaming - as one parent I know who allowed her child to transition seemed pretty sensible. And I think they was just a non-conforming child who found girls kinder. I also do wonder if they had a different underlying issue (maybe neuro diversity).

It breaks my heart to read stories like that. It is the very existence of gender that causes this poor kid distress. If the mother allowed her child to wear whatever clothes they wanted, pink dresses or blue shorts, they would have been happy.
In a genderdree world - any sex can wear any clothes.

I also do wonder if they had a different underlying issue (maybe neuro diversity

As is the case for so many children who "transition". Unfortunately the ""transition" does not address or help their neuro diversity at all (and probably worsens it imo).

None of my children could reliably tell a boy from a girl at the age of two. I wonder where I went wrong.

Verysad i do feel for the parents and I believe most of them are trying to do what is best. But with the distress you describe, is the best way to tell the child that they can change sex, even though such a thing is not possible?
I think you have to bear in mind that this is all untested, despite what Mermaids say. What if your child turns around to you as an adult and asks you why you did that to them. How would you be able to answer that or live with the fact that it could have caused infertility, increased cancer risk, dependency on medication and may not even have removed the feelings of distress? It’s not easy but I’m pretty sure that this is not the way forward.

The threat that Mermaids uses to sell their child abuse system is despicable. Particularly in light of the clearly documented post transitioning spike in suicides.

Mermaids needs investigating. And thi is going to be a scandal we'll look back on and be horrified. Well some of us are horrified now but are being called transphobes.

I don't know how as a parent you'd confirm that your child can become another sex, whatever their distress. At two or three years of age, children don't know anything! They pretend to be a dragon for a day, etc!

Mermaids needs investigating
Yes, 100%

Wasn't there a petition somewhere asking for this?

Verysadpants, it was brave of you to come on here. I believe a 2 year could sob uncontrollably insisting that they are not a boy but a girl however I do not believe it is because they want their internal identity validated or because they are concerned about pronouns, it would be because they want something that they associate with the opposite sex and that message about what are boys or girls can or cannot do would have come from care givers and family members. I do accept that that message may have been unintentional or unavoidable.

Similarly my 2 year old grandson was sobbing uncontrollably at the weekend insisting he was not little but big. My response to his sobbing was not to consider hormones or surgery to make him grow taller or insist that everyone around him says "Wow what a big boy you are" although that might have cheered him up a bit. Instead I identified the reason he wanted to be big (the 'big' children were going to the park and he wasn't) and dealt with that by telling him I would take him later. Ha it didn't work as he is 2 and only has a crude understanding of the word 'later' in much the same way that he only has a crude understanding of the words 'big' 'little' 'boy' and 'girl' so I got the sweets out instead.

Kids Company was also deemed untouchable for a long time in much the same way as Mermaids are now. That all went horribly wrong. The scandals will come. They’re already brewing as seen in the court case where the judge made a point of noting Mermaids’ harmful influence in a case where the child immediately went back to thinking he was his biological sex as soon as he got away from the mother.

Some parents seem to misunderstand magical thinking, which is a normal stage of child development.

Which is why it’s sad and a bit frustrating for parents to read stories that say “ I knew my small child was trans when he/ she did this.....” followed by an account of something that almost all children do.

Many if not most children cry because they can’t get something they want/ have an imaginary friend / dress up in clothes / pretend they are another person / animal / thing.

Most parents play along to some extent /sympathise /discuss their feelings. I’m willing to bet good money that there are far more toddlers in the Uk who want to be a character from Thomas the Tank engine than who want to be the opposite sex. But no one is suggesting drugs and surgery for this. Which is odd because it’s just as impossible to become a train as it is to change sex.

I’m not suggesting that gender dysphoria isn’t a real mental illness and of course it needs treatment the same as any other disorder. But I don’t think that’s shown by a three year old girl saying that She wants to be a boy because she doesn’t like dresses / find hair slides uncomfortable / wants to do football not ballet.

One of my sons was very sad when he discovered that he couldn’t be a mummy. I didn’t get him a womb transplant. I talked to him about the bits of being a mummy that he couldn’t do as a daddy and those that he could. And that just because things were one way on our family (eg mummy does the cooking) didn’t mean that he couldn’t do it differently when he was a parent. Turns out he mostly wanted to push a buggy so just as well we didn’t start on puberty blockers < whew > .

Verysad it must be really difficult - just as parenting any child with a mental health issue is difficult. Children who refuse to eat (anorexia is another body dysmorphia/dysphoria).

But what everyone fails to remember is that medical/surgical intervention started as an experimental treatment (with some pretty horrendous results) for men with body dysphoria - or maybe men who were gay, or maybe men who were AGP.

The use of strong drugs to treat a mental health issue is always a bit dodgy, and in the case of bodily dysphorias it's been really undertested. Gender dysphoria has never been properly scientifically studied to the extent that clearly it should be.

And the history of the main set of treatments held out as "the answer" is obscured - maybe because of Mermaids-style propaganda. And also because I imagine that parents like you are desperate for whatever kind intervention might resolve their dear child's pain and suffering.

We also prefer to believe in all illness having a bodily cause, rather than a mental one. Or rather, we are so used to the Western-style "mind-body split" that we tend not to see that a 'cure' needs to be both physical ad mental therapy.

Good luck Verysad - you are in a similar situation to parents of anorexics, of drug addicts, of those severely mentally ill with something like BPD or sever depression - it must be agonising to see your child suffer so.

I think you have to bear in mind that this is all untested

This.

There will be fall out and a lot of heartache.

Parents who thought they were doing the right thing (despite enough evidence and vocal concerns but hey, explain antivaxxers?), children and young people suffering physically, mentally and emotionally. The beep beep beep or organisations, personalities and politicians as they slowly back away and pretend they were not associated in any way. I’m hoping for jail time for some players but then I’m vindictive when it comes to harming children.

Of course I know my child can’t change sex. This is not like them saying they want to be a cat and you play along with that for a day. Mine is 16 now, until puberty we didn’t really pay it much attention as like I said, it really didn’t matter what they wore or what they played with &c. At puberty we went to the docs about it as child was miserable and what I thought we’d get was counselling or something to try and help them come to terms with their actual body. Nope. CAMHS will not touch it so got referred to GIDS. Oh good, I think, the experts, they will really explore this with me kid and if it really, really can’t be fixed maybe as an absolute last resort some time when they are an adult they might go down the medical route. That is not what happens there. You get an appointment maybe every three to six months and it’s basically affirmative. If they think it’s right for your child and your child is capable of consent (13 is not too young apparently), you have no say in e.g. blockers. If you withhold recommended medical treatment (by just not taking them) you are not in a great position with social services - bearing in mind if your kid is a teenager and desperate for this treatment.

That's a fucked up system, Sadpants. And it's fucked up because groups like Mermaids have gained control over it.

This isn't the kind of thing where an appt every 3 months is going to help.

Yet another story of a child "transitioned" so they can play with and wear stereotypical opposite-sex things.

No two or three-year-old has an actual awareness let alone understanding of sex btw. That's just not how early childhood development in this area works. I mean it's not like we haven't got decades worth of research into the matter...

This child could have been allowed all of the same things without socially transitioning. And going to the papers with these kind of claims when your child is supposedly already experiencing distress, is not good parenting in my view.

I cannot recall any distress in children that has ever been improved by exposing them to the media. Where narratives can develop which the parent cannot control. Thereby exposing an underage child, too young to give informed consent to this invasion of their privacy, to the public - who are after all in no way shape or form obliged to react with kindness and understanding.

Call me Judgey McJudgeface if you want because I am definitely judging.