Gender neutral parenting is an option for parents who want to give their child the opportunity to determine who they are – without being boxed into gender stereotypes. It may also be called gender creative parenting or non-gendered parenting or gender-open parenting.
There are parents who want to know the gender of their baby as quickly as possible. Is the baby a boy, or a girl? The answer influences the name the parents choose for the child, and often, their expectations of how the child will be.
Parents may expect Brian to be loud, active, and interested in playing with trucks and action figures. They may expect Brianna to be quiet, gentle, and interested in playing with baby dolls and plastic horses. But, it’s entirely possible that Brian will be a gentle kid who prefers baby dolls while Brianna enjoys loudly playing with action figures. Or, both Brian and Brianna might like to play with all of those things.
Parents who choose gender neutral parenting raise their children without molding them into what society thinks the child should be (based on the child’s gender). NBC News reported: “At birth, reproductive organs reveal a baby’s assigned sex. Gender, however, comes later, around age 4, when children begin to identify as masculine, feminine or somewhere along that spectrum, experts say.”
What does gender neutral parenting look like? That depends on the parent. It could mean any of the following options:
- Using they/them pronouns to describe the child (until and unless the child announces that she is a girl or that he is a boy).
- Asking preschool teachers and school teachers to call their child by the child’s preferred pronouns
- Refusing to publicly reveal a child’s gender
- Assigning gender pronouns based on the child’s body, while making an effort not to push the child towards things society stereotypically identifies with that gender
- Making it clear to their child that there is not only one way to be a boy or to be a girl. In other words, there is no dress code, and all boys and girls are allowed to feel and express all kinds of emotions. It’s ok to be masculine, or to be feminine, or both – no matter what gender a person happens to be.
Gender neutral parenting allows your child know that you love them, no matter who they are. This kind of open acceptance is helpful to all children, and especially helpful for children who realize they are LGBTQ.
Related Articles at Families.com:
* Boys Playing with Dolls and Girls Playing with Cars