Radical Parenting Part 3

Ok Part 3 - Gender Neutral Parenting. Ok I will hold off on my comments and keep to the plan for telling you about this. This family has two young boys, 4 years and 10 months. They are raising their boys in a "gender neutral environment." In their house, the wife and husband do not follow normal societal gender roles. The wife does home improvement projects, and the man does laundry and cleaning. If the boys decide they want to walk around in mommy's shoes, that is perfectly acceptable. The older boy has many young female friends. If they want to come over and play princess dress-up, that is also perfectly acceptable. The wife writes a blog about her children. She is hoping to raise boys who will be better partners and better understand women. On the show, drs comment on the family. The dr said that sexuality is determined before birth, and that the family's actions will not promote homosexuality.

My take - I think that the actions that are taking are fine, but pushing it as "gender neutral" and making a big deal out of it is strange. I think it's fine that the boy plays dress up and wears his mom's shoes. At his age, it's fine. But soon he will learn traditional male/female boundaries, and if he goes outside of those, he will be cruelly ridiculed by his friends. So we'll have to see how things change as the kids get older. I think it's GREAT that the mom can operate a drill and hang shelves. And it's GREAT that dad does laundry. Let's just let the kids think that it's normal, and raise them to respect mom and respect dad.