Being a Mom can be hard.
Being a Mom of a non-binary or Trans child...
You have to thicken your skin. You have to be prepared for every person to tell you how wrong your child is for 'believing' they are something that 'they obviously are not'.
So many people believe that gender is Female or Male, no shades of Gray.
There are many shades in between.
There is science to back up both the 'binary gender' and the 'multiple gender' ideas, so maybe more study is required, but I think right now, people are using science like other people use statistics. To skew truths.
It is a fact that more non-binary and trans children think about committing suicide.
It is a fact that more non-binary and trans children end up doing self harm.
Is this because there is something wrong with them? I don't think so.
There is something wrong with society.
Us old folks think we understand the world.
The only way our world evolves is for change to happen. I am not saying that non-binary and Trans thoughts are new, not that they are right or wrong.
I am saying they are natural, they are part of a changing world, and to put non-binary or trans people down, to tell them that they are unnatural, or not worthy of respect is wrong.
Every time someone does not use or try to use preferred pronouns, they are telling that person that how they feel is wrong, that they are un-natural.
I remember when I was young, I looked 'androgynous' or perhaps more like a boy.
I was going into the "Women's" washroom, when an older woman stopped me and yelled at me 'This is the Woman's washroom!' I looked at her and said, 'I know, I am a girl', then walked past. I went to the stall and cried.
It was a small moment, 40 years ago, and I still remember how I felt right then. I was outraged, upset, and felt small, insignificant.
How would you feel to not 'fit' - People see you and think 'Girl', so you can't use the Men's washroom, but you feel like a boy so don't want to use the Women's washroom. Yet so many places do not have anything labeled 'Non-Binary' or 'Trans' or just 'Washroom'.
Everything in our world ostracizes Non-Binary and Trans people. Yet it is my humble belief that throughout history, 'Tom-boys' (Girls that preferred to dress and act more boyish) and Boys that were more feminine were sometimes just that, and sometimes misgendered.
If you are a parent with a Non-Binary or Trans child, search for parent groups, search for information to help you understand your child.
They need you.
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