Raising Theybies: Massachusetts Couple Are Bring Up Their Twins As Gender-Neutral And Letting The Kids Decide
PSYCHOLOGY
Raising Theybies: Massachusetts Couple Are Bring Up Their Twins As Gender-Neutral And Letting The Kids Decide
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There are many philosophies and approaches to parenting, but it looks like one of them is raising theybies. What this means is that parents let their kids decide on their gender by themselves.
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Gender-neutral parenting trend
Gender-neutral parenting trend is a relatively new approach to raising a child by not revealing his or her sex despite having male and female genitals. The parents leave it up to the child to pick what gender they want.
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This parenting style has caused quite a bit of commotion with many saying it encourages a child to embrace his or her true identity, while others believe it just confuses the kid. There a number of states in the US now that allow parents to choose "X" as a child’s gender on their birth certificate.
Massachusetts couple raising theybies
A couple in Massachusetts have joined celebrities such as Kate Hudson, Adele in taking a genderless approach to raising their children.
Nate and Julia Sharpe are mechanical engineers who welcomed twins, Zyler and Kadyn. When asked which is a boy or a girl, the couple said that’s a question only the children can answer for themselves. The husband speaking in an interview with NBC News said:
A theyby is, I think, different things to different people. For us, it means raising our kids with gender-neutral pronouns — so, ‘they,’ ‘them,’ ‘their,’ rather than assigning ‘he,’ ‘she,’ ‘him,’ ‘her’ from birth based on their anatomy.
Despite the controversy surrounding the parenting approach, the couple said the decision to raise their twins gender-neutral developed from both personal experience and research.
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Julia went on to explain that as a female in a male-dominated profession, she understood first-hand the limitations of gender expectations.
Gender neutral parenting pros and cons
Just like any method of parenting, gender neutral upbringing has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Lets take a look at a few of them.
Pros
- They are more creative thanks to having the freedom of expression and choice.
- They have the ability to enhance their insights and interests.
- A child can embrace who he is without any constriction.
- It increases your child’s awareness of identity and self-esteem.
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Cons
- When they attend school and meet other children gender -neutral kids become confused about their identity.
- It will be challenging for parents to avoid all gender-specific pronouns like him, her, she or he.
- Labelling your child into a ‘type’.
Allowing the kids choose their gender by themselves. How does that sound?
