T
he Imperfect Parent is a site that provides an outlet for parents who are, well, imperfect and not always perfectly cool. Jessica and Prescott Carlson, the editors in chief, run a tight ship. The writing is good (and yes, I'm biased) and the topics vary from MILF-wear, to discipline, to public education, to Jessica's recent post about what to do when your son wants to be a princess.
Her son Graham, who is delayed, has recently fixated on dressing up like a princess. When she told him 'no', he asked why, to which she responded "Because that is for girls and ...you. Are. A. Boy."
Leaving aside the pervasive belief now common among lefties that gender stereotyping is damaging, children spend much of their fourth and fifth years (and beyond) sussing out what it means to be a girl or a boy. And children who strongly identify with their gender and its stereotypes are merely beginning to fill in what will hopefully become a more in-depth and multi-dimensional tapestry of self-awareness.
Huddled together in our politically correct living rooms, my girlfriends and I often reluctantly admit that sons tend to hit (gross motor) and girls tend to talk and weep (verbal, emotional). Whenever people hear I have all daughters, they almost always ominously warn about the "weepy teen years" and make jokes about Daddy with a shotgun warding off the advancing hormonal admiring hordes.
At one time, these warnings would have made me cringe with superior knowingness. Now, I listen, take notes, and pay heed.
Ultimately, gender is much more than a trick of frame and brain and genitals. Whether our politics like it or not, our kids and their gender preferences are often simpler than we wish they were (girl talks, boy hits).
In Jessica's case, she feels that Graham's gender confusion would not be supported by letting him romp in princess-wear. And I heartily agree.
