Do you think that very young children (18 months plus) are capable of determinin

1. 85

   TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years ago

   Do you think that very young children (18 months plus) are capable of determining their gender needs
   
   Recently there has been much discussion about this issue, with some parents claiming that their very young children are capable of telling them whether they are actually, psychologically, a different gender than the one they were physically born to be.  What do you think about this issue?

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2. 79

   chuckandus6posted 9 years ago

   I don't believe that you normally don't see any signs of preference,they could be mistaken a boy playing with a doll,or a girl playing with cars as a gender preference I would strongly disagree.that it is okay either way and does not indicate preference.
   I think that society thinks too much.

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   jlparkposted 9 years ago

   If they have language - I think they can tell you what gender they are, whether that matches that which they were assumed to be at birth or not.
   
   If they don't - making an assumption from play is dangerous, and highly inaccurate. For example, my daughter today was playing with a tractor, and loves to get dirty, yet I wouldn't assume she will identify as a boy later on - if she does, thats okay with me. But I'm not going to assumed from some random playing.
   
   Children are usually quite direct with their feelings, emotions, and what they are thinking - they have no social filter at a very young age, and often say what was on their mind. They don't know that it might be seen as "weird" for them to say "no, actually, I'm a (opposite gender)" - if it's what they feel, they'll say it.
   
   Most trans people have known for a very long time before they are able to do anything about it. Heck, a lot of gay people know as children (and no, it's not about sex...they aren't too young to know). So why couldn't a trans child be possible?
   
   3-4yrs, i can't see why they wouldn't be able to....

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   peeplesposted 9 years ago

   I'm a bit weary about that. I don't think a 2 year old saying she is a boy, means that she actually feels like a boy. My daughter has often said she wants to be a boy, but it is usually said out of confusion when her older brothers get to do something she doesn't. She confuses the fact that they are older and can do more with the fact they are boys. We also have a friend who shaves her girls hair off. One is 4 the other is 10ish. My daughter will see them and say she wants a "boy" haircut. This has nothing to do with her actual feelings about herself and more to do with wanting what someone else has.
   As a mother of 3 children I simply don't think they have the mental grasp to understand the differences outside of what they have directly been taught at such a young age.

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   dashingscorpioposted 9 years ago

   I wouldn't give it too much weight at that age.
   More often than not whichever group appears to be having the most fun that is the group the (toddler) will want to associate with or be thought of as belonging to.

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   Lisa HWposted 9 years ago

   My aim (from before the time I even had any babies) was to aim to raise "a little human being" first.  I just figured if I managed to help each one of the three I eventually did have to like who/what s/she was, then gender would take care of itself once they got to the age when "gender type stuff" kicked in naturally.
   
   My approach from the beginning, with each of them, was to let them be who they were "as little people" and have no expectations of any of them (other than some basic "good behavior" within the context of babies and very young children.
   
   So in reply to your question, I don't think adults or anyone else should even be having a whole lot of conversation about gender with the youngest of children.  My little ones were told at one time or another, I guess, that they were either a boy or a girl.  They recognized whether other little children were boys or girls (and knew if adults were men or women.  Children figure out (or are told) very young how to know the difference between a baby girl and baby boy.
   
   Maybe the fact that my kids had no issue (that I'm aware of anyway) is why there was no discussion by them about their gender; so who's to say, I suppose.  I just know what I simply don't think adults (or other family members) should put a whole lot of emphasis/focus on gender when children are still in those earliest years of learning to be, and be valued as, a "person  and an individual first".

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   tsadjatkoposted 9 years ago

   
   
   The concept that very young children are capable of telling anyone whether they are actually, psychologically, a different gender than the one they were physically born to be is so ludicrous I can't even imagine what kind of person would make such a claim! Certainly not a person who is grounded in reality. You cite no sources for your question but I don't care what study makes such a conclusion, it's a ruse of a study.
   
   To accept such a premise would dictate that a child not be raised or influenced according to it's biological gender or else that would obviously be child abuse, an action punishable by law.
   
   Are you ready for this?
   
   To treat any child as either male or female would require by law that the child provide a statement of it's desires probably reviewed and approved by some sort of government board of professional child gender psychiatrists and doctors. That's right, the government would have to stick it's nose further into your life. But even in court a person can not be convicted solely on the evidence of one statement by a child because children are often incompetent to give sworn or unsworn evidence. So how can their statement be proof of their gender needs in the eyes of the law?
   
   Wherever "much discussion about this issue" is occurring, I would bet the instigators have another agenda, which like the fraud of "man made" global  warming, less freedom and more government control of our lives is at the root of it.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I did not state my beliefs about this issue one way or the other.  I am simply throwing this question up for discussion because I am interested in hearing other people's views.

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      tsadjatkoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      In never said that you did, and knowing you from hub pages as I do I would not think that you would believe it.

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   The Examiner-1posted 9 years ago

   It depends on what ae they discover - or are told, which you will hear about - their gender. That happens at varied ages in various children.

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   From my Brainposted 7 years ago

   Some parents that a child's gender can be decided the day the child is born.
   You see me and over 300,000 other American children were born with ambigous gender.
   
   The reason you don't know about this is because 99.99% of those children were surgically altered "to fit social norms" many like me the day we were born.
   
   Seeing how experts agree 50% of us don't even know we had the surgery I would have to say that children of that age have no clue. 
   
   I was fifty years old before I learned I was born with ambigous gender even though I had seven surgeries before the age of six to make me a boy.
   
   If you want to know more you can read my blog https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/I-w … sgenderism

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