Reply to Sex vs. Gender & Teens

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to "Sex vs. Gender & Teens"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My 14 yo DD just shared that a friend has come out as "non-binary".  She then went on to explain the difference between biological sex and gender identity, including the sliding scale of identity. She shared that non-binary is not on the scale. I'm still slightly confused by this last point, but I told her that you can't judge people by how they feel. She explained why people are adding she/her, she/they, etc. to their profiles on-line. Her friend has a new name to be used by only those who are in the know.  And, my DD will use the old name around this person in front of me because the person has only come out to a handful of trusted friends.  As a trusted friend my DD is not sharing this person's identity with me. I'm grateful for DD sharing this with me, but I'm also a bit stunned. These kids are 14... I'm trying to e open minded... but... Thoughts?  [/quote]

I don't want to be flippant about this, but it is "all the rage" with the teen/tweens. Here's another thread on it: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/855385.page

My almost 14 year old just told me about the same thing yours told you. The topic is common and constant. And it's not just this area. A friend of mine from across the country said her sister is dealing with the same issue with her niece.

I responded to another post on this with what our approach is - we listen and are respectful, sometimes we joke, not in a mean way, but just to keep the discussion from becoming too serious. On the thread I linked there's this comment: "For girls, it’s replaced the cutting and anorexia of past decades as a way of dealing with the pain and anxiety of puberty." I believe this pretty much 100%, which isn't to say that a few of these kids may permanently transition, but I think it's more of a way to deal with their changing bodies and feelings.

We also emphasize that we think these decisions are serious, that transgenderism is not something we have a lot of experience with b/c it was not common in our (meaning us as parents) experience, and that we are supportive. I've had one experience with my child where we had to kind of reason through that any decision like this is a process, and it's ok to be serious and continue, but it's also ok to decide it's not the right path.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics