Rainbow Child

Why do you let him wear that? What is wrong with you? You are the parent you should try steering him in more of a boy direction? You’re making him gay! Those are girl clothes! and more….

These are the questions and comments that our 5 year old child has to hear, these are the questions and comments that we have to hear and field. It’s one thing if they come from children because children simply repeat things that parents have taught them to say to an extent, but it’s very different when it comes from an adult.

Guess what your Great Grandpa / Grandpa wore a dress until he was school age. Let that sink in for a minute. Your strong, strapping, manly grandpa wore a dress! Whaaaaat! If someone put a boy in a dress now, the comments would fly! Things such as, “Make America Great Again.” Funny how so many people are so uneducated in the facts. Next time before you throw stones you should check facts.

Colors are simply colors, clothing is simply fabric, and likes or dislikes are just that. If your child says to you my favorite color is blue and your child is a boy- Do you not allow your child to express himself with his color choice? Do you not allow him to wear clothes that he feels good about himself in? Do you as a an adult have colors and fabrics that you feel better in than others? Do we not as a society preach that we should all feel good in our own skin?

That means as long as you are feeling good in your own skin wearing what “clothing companies, media, and manufacturers” say you should like. Take a step back from all of it… Think for a moment- Why do these companies create gender specific car seats, high chairs, blankets, furniture? It is because they know you will buy it. They want to make more money off of you. It is not because your infant baby girl needs a pink car seat to feel like a girl or a blue car seat for your baby boy.

It’s very interesting to me: There can be a little girl that loves to go hunting, and people will pat you on the back because good for you for teaching your daughter that she can do anything a boy can do. “Woman power” and I agree it’s a beautiful thing! No one is saying, “you are going to make her a lesbian”.

Take a little boy- He wants to do gymnastics and wear pink and purple clothes with sparkles- People do not say, “Good for you for teaching him to feel good in his own skin”. “Boy power” instead the comments flow…

Unless it’s at your doorstep you will never understand, but I assure you when you have to hold your child and tell them that they can like what they like and they don’t have to listen to the mean comments of people that are not educated in this area. When you have to take deep breaths with your child because he’s upset for hearing people downgrade him for liking what he likes, How is that okay? How is it okay that he’s not allowed to feel good in his own skin?

Please- take a moment and try and understand that we are all humans and we all deserve to feel good in our own skin! Have a conversation with your little girls and your little boys and let them know that activities and clothes are just that- they aren’t gender specific and it’s okay for little boys to want to play with ponies, and it’s okay for little girls to want to play with trucks. It’s okay for us all to fall in love with a rainbow because colors are awesome! Who doesn’t love a good rainbow! It’s totally okay and awesome if your little girl wants to ride dirt bikes and play football! It’s totally okay if your little boy wants to bake and do the dishes!

We all need to understand that clothing choices and activity choices do not dictate your sexuality preference- Let your children like what they like- Better yet, let my child like what he likes.

We will forever be the firm foundation that he deserves us to be! We will forever stand up for him and his choices, we will forever raise awareness. I know that he isn’t the only child/person going through this. Until you have had to wipe away tears or have a conversation with your baby about whether or not he should buy something that he loves because of fear of being made fun of you will never know… We are thankful for the supportive village that we do have! We are forever grateful for the compassionate strangers that give him words of absolute encouragement! We are thankful for those moments! They do make the other moments a little more bearable. We are thankful that we have a loving Father that has, is, and will continue to place his loving arms around Chandler every moment of his life and give him absolute assurance of who he is and WHOS he is! What a good good God we serve!