Mum-of-three Christina Hise-Johnson, 35, and her husband, Josh, 39, have agreed to raise their children to be who they want without the societal gender labels.
Their son, Chandler, 5, was just two years old when he begged them to buy him a pair of pink shoes.
And now Chandler, who is home-schooled, prefers to shop in the ‘girl’ section of shops, with the complete support of his parents.
Chandler’s siblings, 19-year-old Ashley and 14-year-old Jacob, have been brought up with the same approach.
They were able to experiment with what they wanted to wear and were always supported by Christina and Josh.
Despite being brought up in a caring household, the family receives some negative comments from strangers. Some question Christina over their son’s lifestyle and some mistake him for a girl.
The stay at home mum, from Indiana, explained: ‘We are asked questions like “aren’t you scared he’s going to be gay?” or “why would you let your boy dress like a girl?”.
‘I have had people tell me how beautiful our little girl is and when they find out he’s a boy they shake their heads and walk away.’
When it’s other children doing the asking, Christina and Josh are more understanding – but they can’t fathom why adults would question their choices.
Christina added: ‘We explain that clothes are just clothes and colours are just colours, and everyone is unique, so we can all like what we like.
‘Gender-neutral parenting for us is allowing our children to make choices based on things that interest them.
‘We do not limit those interests based on what the media says is ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ related. We teach that clothes, colours, and activities are not gender-related.
‘We allow our children to express themselves from an early age; we allow them to play with toys because they like them, we allow them to choose hair styles based on what they like.
‘We do not put unrealistic gender roles on our children. We are not fans of the saying, “boys will be boys”. We do not believe that your gender is a reason to act a certain way.
‘We want our children to always be allowed to be who they are and not who society or anyone else says they should be.’
The family live in a ‘conservative’ suburb, where Christina says people aren’t used to their way of life.
Even little Chandler has been the direct subject of abuse.
‘When taking Chan to a birthday party, he was called a girl, and he was told that he was gay,’ explained Christina.
‘I don’t understand how people associate sexual orientation with a five-year-old, but that’s the way of the world.’
Because of the negative attention, the mum and dad decided to homeschool Chandler.
Christina says she gives her children the freedom to explore who they are because it wasn’t a luxury she was afforded growing up.
‘I know that it took me until my early thirties to really feel good in my own skin and I don’t want that for my children,’ she says.
‘We believe that what works in our house doesn’t have to work in your house, and what works in your house doesn’t have to work in our house.
‘We do not think that people have to agree with us, but we just hope people learn to respect others and their choices.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/15/parents-raising-gender-neutral-children-asked-if-they-worry-about-making-them-gay-12060276/
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