My five-year-old son is obsessed with princesses
and often says he wishes he was a girl.
Should I be concerned?
You know, I, I don't, uh, know if there's anything
to be concerned about there.
It's, it's maybe get more information. Uh, right.
What is it? What is it that you're playing And, and,
and you say you'd like to be a girl.
Just have your child talk.
Just have your child talk and, and ask questions.
I would be cautious not to direct a child what to feel
or what to think because you want to make sure
that there's an open dialogue between you and your child.
And, and often we're just letting our
children explore, talk.
Uh, uh will it stay that way? I don't know.
But what I do know is your ability
to create a safe enough environment where they can talk
and be open is really an important part here.
Helping them explore their thoughts, their emotions,
and then giving them experiences, right?
Uh, experiences that are both in this situation.
I wish I was a girl. Well, okay, what does that mean?
Um, do they enjoy boy things playing with trucks?
Do they en, does he enjoy? Right?
I, again, it's, it's being with his child, figuring out
what he likes in this situation.
And I wanna be cautious there not
to unduly influence my child to think
or feel in any direction.
I want my child to explore.
Because usually what happens there is that even
as they get older, there will be a lot of
outside influences, but you wanna make sure
that you are the safe places, the parent that they can come
and talk about their feelings,
whatever they may be, no matter what.
I'm a safe person for my child.
And that's really the ultimate goal here, to help your child
and also guide your child into activities
that will help them understand more about themselves.
Like a, a again, there are,
there's a great value in learning sports and learning arts
and music, and a talent just developing the talents.
And so I would wanna give a five-year-old as they develop
and mature as much opportunity
to develop skills as possible.
But I wouldn't be concerned if my child says, I,
you know, I wish I was a girl.
You, you like playing with
dolls or you like playing with that?
Okay. It's the creative mind.
We have to understand developmentally, children are creative
and the, their imaginations, and they play games
and they play, they, they do, they just create stories.
And it's a, it's a fascinating way.
In fact, one of my, uh, professors, when I was going
through child development, he said
that child's imagination is to be brought into a place
where it can grow and ask questions and ask questions.
So the best thing that we can do with children at
that age is let them ask questions.
Let them have imagination,
and they come to a point
where they know their creativity can be expanded.
And really that's what we want to do is create that kind
of an environment where their creativity,
creativity can flourish.
And so I wouldn't necessarily be concerned,
I would wanna just create this connection,
your relationship with the child.
And, and, and over time, uh, things will continue
to manifest in,
in whatever way they continue to grow and develop.
I would wanna make sure that they have lots of opportunities
for those things.
