Reply to 5-yr-old daughter wants to be a boy

Forum Index » Parenting -- Special Concerns

Reply to "5-yr-old daughter wants to be a boy"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Hi, parent of a trans teen here. I was out driving the old trans-bandwagon around (lots of great cargo space in the back for the groceries) and just got back and saw these posts.

My advice is to listen to your kid and trust your parental instincts. Here's the analogy I use: Do you give your kids Percocet the minute they say they aren't feeling good? No, of course not. You tell them to lie down and rest for a bit, maybe make them some camomile tea. If they still aren't feeling good, then you maybe give them a Tylenol. And of course, if they are writhing in pain, you go straight to the ER, where they'll get the strong drugs and possibly needed life-saving treatment.

Same thing with gender identity. Is your kid mentioning this in passing, with no distress? Then I'd go with the light approach, which I think many on this chain are suggesting. That might be something like: "I hear you sweetie! When I was a kid, sometimes I felt like [insert feeling]. It's okay to feel different ways, and you know what? I love you no matter what."

On the other hand, if your little one is crying nightly in despair that he/she is not the right gender and saying "God made a mistake!" then yeah, I'd call Children's. Same thing if this is accompanied by school avoidance or anxiety, or other issues.

And for older kids exhibiting depression along with gender dysphoria, addressing this is a must, it can be a life or death situation.

But if this is nothing now more than a very little one expressing interest in cross-gender play and the occasional statement about wanting to be the other gender, I'd probably watch and wait, and be supportive. Of course, you can reach out to Children's for yourself, to educate yourself about gender fluid kids and ways to support them.

And by the way, to us parents of trans kids, this is not a trendy thing at all. These are our children.

Lastly, Children's has been a source of great support for us. Given the messages here, I checked with them about best way to reach them, and was told that folks trying to reach the Children's Gender Clinic should first call Clarissa, at 202-476-4172, and leave a message. If you don't get a response in a day or two, then call 202-476-4580 and ask for the clinic director.[/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