Being a non-girly girl, I relate to a lot of a the comments below. I was a tomboy and not into girly things. I didn’t fit in with most other girls (but reckon a touch of the tism didn’t help with that). Puberty sucked and there was a lot of body shaming in my family, so that didn’t help, either.
When my kid was in year 5/6 a big topic of conversation with him & his classmates was sexual identity, and they spent heaps of time discussing and analysing what their identities and preferences were. I was a bit surprised that it all came up so early (would have thought it was more teenage stuff, but clearly idk).
These things are out in the open and talked about a lot more now, so I reckon kids have more leeway to explore different aspects of their identities, which is so much healthier than denying or suppressing them like in the past. I’ve found as a parent, it can be challenging when things come up that I didn’t expect or hadn’t considered - it’s definitely taken me some time to get my head around some things.
I also want to say you’re an amazing parent, Peeler, and you’re doing a wonderful job with your kids.
It is a lot better that they can discuss things more openly now, and they know so much more than I did and at a younger age too (Elder had a friend in primary school, at around grade 5 iirc, who knew they were pansexual and I had to ask him what it meant… even Miniest in grade 3 knew lol). They talk about it a lot more than I thought they would too, and certainly with more accurate knowledge than I and my peers did that’s for sure!
Being a non-girly girl, I relate to a lot of a the comments below. I was a tomboy and not into girly things. I didn’t fit in with most other girls (but reckon a touch of the tism didn’t help with that). Puberty sucked and there was a lot of body shaming in my family, so that didn’t help, either.
When my kid was in year 5/6 a big topic of conversation with him & his classmates was sexual identity, and they spent heaps of time discussing and analysing what their identities and preferences were. I was a bit surprised that it all came up so early (would have thought it was more teenage stuff, but clearly idk).
These things are out in the open and talked about a lot more now, so I reckon kids have more leeway to explore different aspects of their identities, which is so much healthier than denying or suppressing them like in the past. I’ve found as a parent, it can be challenging when things come up that I didn’t expect or hadn’t considered - it’s definitely taken me some time to get my head around some things.
I also want to say you’re an amazing parent, Peeler, and you’re doing a wonderful job with your kids.
It is a lot better that they can discuss things more openly now, and they know so much more than I did and at a younger age too (Elder had a friend in primary school, at around grade 5 iirc, who knew they were pansexual and I had to ask him what it meant… even Miniest in grade 3 knew lol). They talk about it a lot more than I thought they would too, and certainly with more accurate knowledge than I and my peers did that’s for sure!