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NWR-This is ridiculous
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
I think it's AWESOME.
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The only thing is that I think the parents need to manage the process. Like in reading the article one of the older sons doesn't like being mistaken for a girl, so the parents need to help him to understand the choices he's making that are leading to that so he can choose to cut his hair or dress in more traditional clothing so he is known as a boy if that's his choice, OR they can call ahead to places like the nature center to let them know their child dresses in a non-traditional manner, but he is a boy. I think they should do both.
FH has a cousin and she has always let her daughter wear whatever she wants, but she's also always explained that there are consequences. if you don't want to conform, that's ok, but you need to be prepared for kids to make fun of you, etc. We still live in the real world.
The only thing is that I think the parents need to manage the process. Like in reading the article one of the older sons doesn't like being mistaken for a girl, so the parents need to help him to understand the choices he's making that are leading to that so he can choose to cut his hair or dress in more traditional clothing so he is known as a boy if that's his choice, OR they can call ahead to places like the nature center to let them know their child dresses in a non-traditional manner, but he is a boy. I think they should do both.
FH has a cousin and she has always let her daughter wear whatever she wants, but she's also always explained that there are consequences. if you don't want to conform, that's ok, but you need to be prepared for kids to make fun of you, etc. We still live in the real world.
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
i think its ridiculous as well...
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
i'd LOVE to read this article but Yahoo is blocked on my computer at work. Can someone opy & paste? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
these people are idiots. Some people should be given a test before they are allowed to reproduce.
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
So not fair to the kids! They don't want people to make choices for their kids yet what to they think they are doing by following this philosophy???
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
i understand where they are coming from (i guess) but....***? family members? smh
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
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.
There's nothing ambiguous about the baby's genitals. But as Stocker puts it: 'If you really want to get to know someone, you don't ask what's between their legs.' So only the parents, their two other children (both boys), a close friend, and the two midwives who helped deliver the now 4-month-old baby know its gender. Even the grandparents have been left in the dark.
Stocker and Witterick say the decision gives Storm the freedom to choose who he or she wants to be. 'What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It's obnoxious,' adds Stocker, a teacher at an alternative school.
They say that kids receive messages from society that encourage them to fit into existing boxes, including with regard to gender. 'We thought that if we delayed sharing that information, in this case hopefully, we might knock off a couple million of those messages by the time that Storm decides Storm would like to share,' says Witterick.
'In fact, in not telling the gender of my precious baby, I am saying to the world, 'Please can you just let Storm discover for him/herself what s (he) wants to be?!.' she wrote in an email.
How did Stocker and Witterick decide to keep Storm's gender under wraps? During Witterick's pregnancy, her son Jazz was having 'intense' experiences with his own gender. 'I was feeling like I needed some good parenting skills to support him through that,' Witterick said.
Stocker came across a book from 1978, titled X: A Fabulous Child's Story by Lois Gould. X is raised as neither a boy or girl, and grows up to be a happy and well-adjusted child.
'It became so compelling it was almost like, How could we not?' Witterick said.
The couple's other two children, Jazz and Kio, haven't escaped their parents' unconventional approach to parenting. Though they're only 5 and 2, they're allowed to pick out their own clothes in the boys and girls sections of stores and decide whether to cut their hair or let it grow.
Both boys are 'unschooled,' a version of homeschooling, which promotes putting a child's curiosity at the center of his or her education. As Witterick puts it, it's 'not something that happens by rote from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays in a building with a group of same-age people, planned, implemented and assessed by someone else.'
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.
As for his mother, she's not giving up the crusade against the tyranny of assigned gender roles. 'Everyone keeps asking us, 'When will this end?'' she said. 'And we always turn the question back. Yeah, when will this end? When will we live in a world where people can make choices to be whoever they are?'
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.
There's nothing ambiguous about the baby's genitals. But as Stocker puts it: 'If you really want to get to know someone, you don't ask what's between their legs.' So only the parents, their two other children (both boys), a close friend, and the two midwives who helped deliver the now 4-month-old baby know its gender. Even the grandparents have been left in the dark.
Stocker and Witterick say the decision gives Storm the freedom to choose who he or she wants to be. 'What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It's obnoxious,' adds Stocker, a teacher at an alternative school.
They say that kids receive messages from society that encourage them to fit into existing boxes, including with regard to gender. 'We thought that if we delayed sharing that information, in this case hopefully, we might knock off a couple million of those messages by the time that Storm decides Storm would like to share,' says Witterick.
'In fact, in not telling the gender of my precious baby, I am saying to the world, 'Please can you just let Storm discover for him/herself what s (he) wants to be?!.' she wrote in an email.
How did Stocker and Witterick decide to keep Storm's gender under wraps? During Witterick's pregnancy, her son Jazz was having 'intense' experiences with his own gender. 'I was feeling like I needed some good parenting skills to support him through that,' Witterick said.
Stocker came across a book from 1978, titled X: A Fabulous Child's Story by Lois Gould. X is raised as neither a boy or girl, and grows up to be a happy and well-adjusted child.
'It became so compelling it was almost like, How could we not?' Witterick said.
The couple's other two children, Jazz and Kio, haven't escaped their parents' unconventional approach to parenting. Though they're only 5 and 2, they're allowed to pick out their own clothes in the boys and girls sections of stores and decide whether to cut their hair or let it grow.
Both boys are 'unschooled,' a version of homeschooling, which promotes putting a child's curiosity at the center of his or her education. As Witterick puts it, it's 'not something that happens by rote from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays in a building with a group of same-age people, planned, implemented and assessed by someone else.'
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.
As for his mother, she's not giving up the crusade against the tyranny of assigned gender roles. 'Everyone keeps asking us, 'When will this end?'' she said. 'And we always turn the question back. Yeah, when will this end? When will we live in a world where people can make choices to be whoever they are?'
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
Posted by MrsDtoB
these people are idiots. Some people should be given a test before they are allowed to reproduce.
I completely agreee!! I think this is ridiculous! Maybe they're also doing this for publicity too
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
Posted by fdnybride163
As for his mother, she's not giving up the crusade against the tyranny of assigned gender roles. 'Everyone keeps asking us, 'When will this end?'' she said. 'And we always turn the question back. Yeah, when will this end? When will we live in a world where people can make choices to be whoever they are?'
this is priceless... as if growing up a boy or a girl is such a hardship... i certainly never needed my parents to call anyone and let them know not to refer to me as a girl because i didnt want a label... what a load of shyt these people are throwing out... seriously this is such garbage
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
Posted by Yankeeelove
Posted by MrsDtoB
these people are idiots. Some people should be given a test before they are allowed to reproduce.
I completely agreee!! I think this is ridiculous! Maybe they're also doing this for publicity too
thats what i said yesterday... looking for attention is exactly what it is
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
i just feel bad for the kids because this world is hard enough, they will lack a lot of self confidence because they will always be questioning their gender and role in life.
Im sorry there are some things in this world that you can not change, and gender is one of them.
I get that they want to help their kids 'decide' who they want to be but they should teach them to embrace what they have been given and love themselves, and not try to conform to what they think other people would want them to be.
Its setting them up to be followers instead of leaders.
Im sorry there are some things in this world that you can not change, and gender is one of them.
I get that they want to help their kids 'decide' who they want to be but they should teach them to embrace what they have been given and love themselves, and not try to conform to what they think other people would want them to be.
Its setting them up to be followers instead of leaders.
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
I get it but they should teach their child that if that want to cook, dance, wear pink (such as a t-shirt) or play house they should be ashamed of it but not going about it the they are. Some people![]()
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
these people should be b!tch slapped. this is the most selfish thing i havbe ever heard to do to your child! they are doing more harm than good and imagine what kind of problems tht child will grow up with, one child is already suffereing because of it!
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
I get the whole, don't label a person thing.... it's about who you are.
But your SEX is not a label - it's a scientific/biological description.
People forget there is a difference between your sex and your gender. Your sex is what you are born with and you gender is how you feel.
I think the parents are doing a diservice to their child by not giving Storm the choice to make that decision for him or herself. In some ways they are contradicting themselves.
But that's just my take on it.
But your SEX is not a label - it's a scientific/biological description.
People forget there is a difference between your sex and your gender. Your sex is what you are born with and you gender is how you feel.
I think the parents are doing a diservice to their child by not giving Storm the choice to make that decision for him or herself. In some ways they are contradicting themselves.
But that's just my take on it.
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
Posted by AngnShaun
Posted by Yankeeelove
Posted by MrsDtoB
these people are idiots. Some people should be given a test before they are allowed to reproduce.
I completely agreee!! I think this is ridiculous! Maybe they're also doing this for publicity too
thats what i said yesterday... looking for attention is exactly what it is
Exactly, but at their children's expense. I mean, come on. The kid gets crap from others because he dresses like a girl but wants to be known as a boy. Well then how about these idiots be PARENTS, and dress the kid like the LITTLE BOY that he is. I just find this disturbing, and that people actually make this news is even more disturbing.
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
Posted by fdnybride163
i just feel bad for the kids because this world is hard enough, they will lack a lot of self confidence because they will always be questioning their gender and role in life.
Im sorry there are some things in this world that you can not change, and gender is one of them.
A lot of gender is society-based, and it's imposed, not biological. But these parents I think are really not managing this process well
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
Posted by fdnybride163
i just feel bad for the kids because this world is hard enough, they will lack a lot of self confidence because they will always be questioning their gender and role in life.
Im sorry there are some things in this world that you can not change, and gender is one of them.
I get that they want to help their kids 'decide' who they want to be but they should teach them to embrace what they have been given and love themselves, and not try to conform to what they think other people would want them to be.
Its setting them up to be followers instead of leaders.
I agree, well said. Next thing you know they are going to let their kids decide if they want to be human or not. 'If our child wants to be a dog, I would like to give him that choice'.
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
Posted by HSsweethearts
Posted by fdnybride163
i just feel bad for the kids because this world is hard enough, they will lack a lot of self confidence because they will always be questioning their gender and role in life.
Im sorry there are some things in this world that you can not change, and gender is one of them.
A lot of gender is society-based, and it's imposed, not biological. But these parents I think are really not managing this process well
I'm sorry, but I find absolutely nothing wrong with imposing boy things on my son. He is a boy, he will wear boy clothes and not get his toenails painted, or wear pink tu-tus, or have long hair.
Call me a follower of society, but he is a little boy, and that is what I will dress him in and let him look like...a boy!
Life is hard enough as it is, I will never make it worse for him so I can teach him to live in a gender-neutral environment. What a load of crap.
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Re: NWR-This is ridiculous
Posted by BigDsGirl
Posted by fdnybride163
i just feel bad for the kids because this world is hard enough, they will lack a lot of self confidence because they will always be questioning their gender and role in life.
Im sorry there are some things in this world that you can not change, and gender is one of them.
I get that they want to help their kids 'decide' who they want to be but they should teach them to embrace what they have been given and love themselves, and not try to conform to what they think other people would want them to be.
Its setting them up to be followers instead of leaders.
I agree, well said. Next thing you know they are going to let their kids decide if they want to be human or not. 'If our child wants to be a dog, I would like to give him that choice'.![]()
sad thing is there are probably people out there that ARE already letting their kids do that!!
