There’s so much stuff that would feel weird and stereotype-y to see someone else do and think, “they must be trans!” but when I think back on myself doing them, my only thought is, “oh, so that’s what that was about.”
There’s so much stuff that would feel weird and stereotype-y to see someone else do and think, “they must be trans!” but when I think back on myself doing them, my only thought is, “oh, so that’s what that was about.”
Being a little kid and pretending to be pregnant and just assuming that was what would end up happening, then being sad when i found that wasnt what would happen. Still took me til my twenties to have any realizations :(
I’ve noticed my son doing this. He’s played a lot with his gender already and has settled on being a boy, but there’s still things that make me think that puberty’s gonna be a rude awakening for him. Either way, he’s gotta figure it out for himself.
I obviously cant speak to your kids future experiences, but that kind of mirrors my experience. Once i got over “oh ok im a boy apparently?” in my childhood, once puberty came i got really depressed and deeply not okay. What i needed growing up was exposure to and normalization of trans identities (and for people to not assume i was a boy, but thats a big ask in this society). Even just a book with the super cis-accessible ‘born in the wrong body’ narrative. But my home life was a bit messy, so little support there, and school was, well, public school (read: rife with homophobia), so any feelings i had got pushed down and funneled into self hatred and shame.
I hope your kiddo has an easier time figuring things out, but even just having parents who are aware of trans identities and whatnot is a huge win in my book :)
That’s kinda the thing, isn’t it? We tried for a long time to get people to expect him to tell them his name and pronouns when he first saw them for the day. Because that’s what he was doing anyway. People were happy to let him “pretend”, but didn’t actually respect what he wanted. He’s stopped telling people, including us now. So I’m hoping that me being trans and is having trans people present in our lives be enough visibility to help him out if/when he needs it.