Advice on explaining transition to kids

[Anonymous]

Are they really going to ask about the relative’s genitals? That seems unlikely to me.

[Anonymous]

Call him uncle larlo - kids we are going to go see uncle larlo. 4 will say who's uncle larlo and you can say oh we are going to call aunt Larla uncle larlo now.

Answer questions with because that's what he wants or that's what he likes. A name is not someone's gender. How and why one can change gender will not be the questions a 4 yr old has. My son with a unisex name had a brief moment when we encountered the first x who was a girl. But it's fine and imo won't make him question himself or his own gender.

I think you are right on track to focus just on the name and pronouns.

Your kids will largely know their relative as their relative! Clothing choices, name changes and body parts aside. If needed a real simple because he knows he is a boy on the inside and wants other people to notice that too can be simple enough to satisfy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call him uncle larlo - kids we are going to go see uncle larlo. 4 will say who's uncle larlo and you can say oh we are going to call aunt Larla uncle larlo now.

Answer questions with because that's what he wants or that's what he likes. A name is not someone's gender. How and why one can change gender will not be the questions a 4 yr old has. My son with a unisex name had a brief moment when we encountered the first x who was a girl. But it's fine and imo won't make him question himself or his own gender.

I think you are right on track to focus just on the name and pronouns.

Your kids will largely know their relative as their relative! Clothing choices, name changes and body parts aside. If needed a real simple because he knows he is a boy on the inside and wants other people to notice that too can be simple enough to satisfy.

I think this is good advice. My preschooler had a classmate that started identifying as a boy instead of a girl. It was pretty amazing how the kids accepted it without a ton of questions or surprise. They are so young, they don't know how unusual it is (or, alternatively, they have so little experience that everything seems a bit weird. I think my kid was more interested in/fascinated by understanding how the water disappears when we flush the toilet or run the sink).