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Not really--some parents would like to whip their child on a daily basis, do you think they should be able to parent as they please? How about parents that refuse to send their child to school, is that ok? Parenting is a huge responsibility and I don't think ANYONE has the "right" to parent as they please. There is some latitude for parenting within socially acceptable norms but your job as a parent is to raise an adult that is a contributing member of society. If you raise a child to what he/she wants, when he/she wants with no concern for any kind of rules, restrictions or just simply saying NO once in a while. That child can't possibly function in normal society--so, as an adult they either live in their parent's basement or sponge off society. That is NOT ok to do that intentionally.
This is what happens when you let your child do whatever they want:
I think it is quite a leap you are making to say that what these parents are doing is going to result in this type of adult. I would venture to guess there are things you do in your parenting that I might think are wrong. Should I come over and try to stop you?
Pretty sure they're just trying to keep the outside world from acting a certain way towards their kid - you know the "He's so strong!!", "She's so pretty" comments, as well as the "He's a boy - I'll buy him a truck", "She's a girl, I'll get her a pretty pink stuffed animal pony"...
Basically a hippie social experiment. I think its pretty cool, and unlikely to screw the kid up too much... but clearly given the fact that this has made the news, society at large has a problem with it.
But society at large likes to put things in neat little boxes of classification -- that's what humans do, we classify everything.
My guess is it won't last too much longer, if only because at a certain point restroom choice will become involved.
This experiment has been done numerous times before and we who remember it or read about it remember how horribly it always turned out for the kids. Nothing to do with "neat little boxes of classification". Everything to do with the factual nature of testosterone and estrogen.
I seriously doubt the baby will suffer permanent harm because at the age of a few months people weren't referring to it as he or she. Based on some of the reactions in this thread you'd think they were beating their kid. I mean, come on...trying to draw a comparison between people not knowing a baby's gender and some crazy kid who shoots his dad?
People know what gender they are supposed to be (including transgendered people). I doubt the experiment will have any effect on the baby's gender or how he or she feels about gender. It has more of an impact on the adults who are trying to fit it into a nice, neat little box.
For the record, I think it's dumb and would not repeat the experiment for myself.
I seriously doubt the baby will suffer permanent harm because at the age of a few months people weren't referring to it as he or she. Based on some of the reactions in this thread you'd think they were beating their kid. I mean, come on...trying to draw a comparison between people not knowing a baby's gender and some crazy kid who shoots his dad?
People know what gender they are supposed to be (including transgendered people). I doubt the experiment will have any effect on the baby's gender or how he or she feels about gender. It has more of an impact on the adults who are trying to fit it into a nice, neat little box.
For the record, I think it's dumb and would not repeat the experiment for myself.
The comparison wasn't about knowing the gender of the child, it was the rest of the article where they let their kids do whatever the heck they want.
Let kids do what ever they want. Okay. Let's check in with that family a few years from now, and see how that worked for them.
Kids not only need structure, they crave it. They want things well defined, and predictable.
I once saw a show about a hippy family that had home schooled their kids--these kids were strange! They had never worn any shoes, except for sandals, they were vegan, and believe me, these kids were a social experiment gone bad. The parents had so indoctrinated the kids with bizarre beliefs--they were never going to be able to get jobs.
Not really--some parents would like to whip their child on a daily basis, do you think they should be able to parent as they please? How about parents that refuse to send their child to school, is that ok? Parenting is a huge responsibility and I don't think ANYONE has the "right" to parent as they please. There is some latitude for parenting within socially acceptable norms but your job as a parent is to raise an adult that is a contributing member of society. If you raise a child to what he/she wants, when he/she wants with no concern for any kind of rules, restrictions or just simply saying NO once in a while. That child can't possibly function in normal society--so, as an adult they either live in their parent's basement or sponge off society. That is NOT ok to do that intentionally.
This is what happens when you let your child do whatever they want:
Let kids do what ever they want. Okay. Let's check in with that family a few years from now, and see how that worked for them.
Kids not only need structure, they crave it. They want things well defined, and predictable.
I once saw a show about a hippy family that had home schooled their kids--these kids were strange! They had never worn any shoes, except for sandals, they were vegan, and believe me, these kids were a social experiment gone bad. The parents had so indoctrinated the kids with bizarre beliefs--they were never going to be able to get jobs.
Now there is something weird about being a vegan? And wearing only sandals? LOL
What kind of "bizarre beliefs" are you talking about?
Stocker, a progressive teacher, wrote a textbook, Math That Matters, which urges teachers to stop using everyday objects in maths questions and instead work with issues such as homophobia, poverty, child abuse and racial profiling to ‘spark discussion’ and increase students’ interest in ‘social justice advocacy’.
(Sample question: A Chinese worker who makes my shoes earns what percentage of the price I paid for them?)
Their last family holiday was two weeks in Cuba staying with local families to learn about the wonders of Marxist revolution.
Their choice doesn't seem to be working very well for Jazz(the oldest I gather), fine and dandy for the young ones, but maybe if the oldest son doesn't want others thinking he's a girl, his parents should break the news to him that boys don't wear pink, frilly clothes.It seems to me that these parents are not really allowing their children any more freedom in their up-bringing if this child is already avoiding some group functions because he doesn't want to be mistaken for a girl.gender is what it is, pretending you don't have one is rediculous, what's wrong with a girl knowing she's a girl and still offering her whatever it is she shows an interest in...whether it's dolls or trucks.This couple is not giving their children any more by hiding the gender of the child, I think what they're doing will only cause confusion, and possibly embarrassment for their children as they grow older....as seems to be the case with Jazz.
When I initially replied, I was merely trying to point out to the posters who kept insisting the child must be hermaphroditic that that was not the case -- that the child in fact had a gender, and the parents were merely doing a tired social experiment -- that as always, says as much about the people reacting to the experiment as it does about the people participating in the experiment.
This thread, and the countless news stories, prove the point.
Will these children have a difficult time in life? Possibly, but then again many children who are raised apart from society (children of traveling missionaries who are suddenly relocated back to suburbia, children who are homeschooled and not allowed to regularly socialize, children of very strict faith groups who are not allowed to socialize outside the faith, etc...) have a difficult time reintegrating, if they ever attempt to.
Do I equate that with "child abuse". No. I don't. That's my personal opinion.
Do I care if a boy plays with lipstick and wears pink frilly dresses? No, I don't. I also don't care if a girl wants to become a mechanic. I think sparing your children from some amount of indoctrination (i.e. boys play football and girls play teacher) is probably a great idea to go along with the "You can be whatever you want to be" philosophy that is allowing so many of our young people to be successful in non-traditional careers (male nurses, female scientists, etc..)
However that doesn't mean this is all going to go hunky dory, as it seems this family has gone a little overboard.
But I think the news response (including msg boards like this) to this is way overboard. There are way bigger societal issues than this to be outraged about.
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