I have a son who is 3 years old. The other day while we were at a church event, we were painting bird houses. There were other kids around the same age as my son and their parents. During the activity, all the kids starting blurting out what their favorite colors are. Naturally, all the boys started saying colors like blue or red and the girls started saying colors like pink or purple. Then my son yells out, "
My favorite color is pink!" The kids just kept on doing what they were doing. But all the parents turned and looked at me like I had been abusing my son. The seemed to think that my son's comment meant there was something wrong with him and that he needed better guidelines on what it meant to be a boy.
I try my best to allow my son freedom to be who ever he believes himself to be. But giving him the freedom seems to make me less of a parent in the eyes of other parents. That is just stupid. I think that giving my son the freedom to be who he wants to be make me a better parent than those that scold their sons in showing interest in dolls or scolds their daughters for playing in the dirt. Society has drawn such rigid lines about what it means to be a boy or a girl that there is no room for children to express themselves.
Has anyone else experienced something similar? I'd like your feedback. Am I over reacting? Are the other parents over reacting?
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