Parents keep child’s gender under wraps

When many couples have a baby, they send out an email to family and friends that fills them in on the key details: name, gender, birth weight, that sort of thing. (You know the drill: "Both Mom and little Ethan are doing great!")

But the email sent recently by Kathy Witterick and David Stocker of Toronto, Canada to announce the birth of their baby, Storm, was missing one important piece of information. "We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now--a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place? ...)," it said.

That's right. They're not saying whether Storm is a boy or a girl.

-Yahoo news

The idea behind this "gender hiding" is to promote a child who is free to be whom he or she pleases without gender bias. Not even the grandparents know if they have a grandson or a granddaughter. While I see this as a courageous move on the part of the parents, I also strongly believe this is a social experiment that will eventually backfire on them, producing a child that doesn't feel he or she belongs.

In a society that bases so much on sex, are they ultimately setting their child up to fail?

Thoughts?

I saw this on the news last night...

that poor kid's, parents are crazy!

Gender association is human instinct!

I don't think this 'experiment' will backfire. The saying 'boys will be boys and girls will be girls' comes to mind, and if its not the case with this child I think it'll be a blessing to have an early start with no preconceived ideas of what he/she should be.

I wonder how long they will keep this up?

A question I have is, if it is a boy, are they going to make him grow very long hair? Because what if they do, and then people start thinking this boy is a girl and start treating him as such?

reply to post by HighMaintenance


That kid might also...
be like that Miley Cyrus song...
"Got the best of both worlds"
in the reproductive organ department...

maybe the parents were too embarrassed to tell people?

cos if not... they are lunatics... in my opinion

reply to post by ReadyPower


According to the article, they don't seem the type of parents to 'make' their kids do anything they don't want to. I wish I was that brave, but rightly or wrongly I still believe kids need love, limits and consistency.

I saw this on Yahoo news and am completely appalled by the idea of it all. I do feel this will completely back fire on them. In the article it mentions...

Because Jazz and Kio wear pink and have long hair, they're frequently assumed to be girls, according to Stocker. He said he and Witterick don't correct people--they leave it to the kids to do it if they want to. But Stocker and Witterick's choices haven't always made life easy for their kids. Though Jazz likes dressing as a girl, he doesn't seem to want to be mistaken for one. He recently asked his mother to let the leaders of a nature center know that he's a boy. And he chose not to attend a conventional school because of the questions about his gender. Asked whether that upsets him, Jazz nodded.

Right there is the answer to all our questions. The kid is already having an issue with the whole thing. Not wanting to attend something bc they dont want to deal with the gender question. Kids shouldnt have to deal with things like this. They already have a hard enough time growing up and to deal with being bullied, lets add dressing like the opposite sex. To each their own yes but only if the child is able to understand the consequences. We all know if you step outside the norm you have to be prepared to deal with the backlash but lets not go throwing our young into the fire just so the can surpass standards and social norms. Our children should not unknowingly be a social experiment. What is with parents these days and allowing their children to dress themselves to the point were they're ridiculed?!? Has everything in society become such a hush hush that we allow our youth to set the examples for adults?!?

People never cease to amaze me

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


Ooh magick, breaking closed thread!!

I think the idea is stupid to be honest. It's as if being male or female is somehow BAD and that being told you are one or the other is somehow going to be bad for you.. what the hell anyway, all the kid has to do is look down and they know what they are.

Idiot parents imo. we've come to a point now where not only is colour supposed to be ignored, culture is to be ignored (if it's your own), and now gender is to be ignored because some people think acknowledgment of these things is a sin...

reply to post by HighMaintenance


Agreed. Children need discipline and routine. They need to be guided along the difficulties of life until they can understand enough to make decision and deal with the consequences of their actions themselves. It seems parents have such a stand off approach to parenting these days. Its almost like the kids raise and teach the parents. Stop with the role reversal and grab the bull by the horns. Take stand parents and parent your children. Why set them up for ridicule and shame? So then after you fail the rest of society will be there to deal with their feelings... (extreme sarcasm)

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