what would you think of a 2 yo boy in a dress?

[tropicana]

if it helps for the discussion, he had a big sister wearing a matching dress.

[lovepickles]

I think boys have a right to play with or wear anything girls can. It seems only fair. I didn't participate in your poll because the questions were a bit limiting. I have no problem with boys/men wearing dresses. It is a personal choice they are welcome to carry into adulthood if they so choose.

Here is a link to an amazing story: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/12/11/led-child-who-simply-knew/SsH1U9Pn9JKArTiumZdxaL/story.html

[Cyllya]

Um, I don't agree with any of the poll choices. I'd think roughly the same thing I'd think about a little girl in a dress ("how cute," etc), except I'd have the nagging sadness in the back of my mind knowing that other people would stigmatize him.

If it was a child I didn't know, I'd probably mistake him for a girl.

[katelove]

Other - cute kid. Good on the parents for going with his choice.

[wehrli]

Originally Posted by katelove 

Other - cute kid. Good on the parents for going with his choice.

[Thursday Girl]

Originally Posted by Cyllya 

Um, I don't agree with any of the poll choices. I'd think roughly the same thing I'd think about a little girl in a dress ("how cute," etc), except I'd have the nagging sadness in the back of my mind knowing that other people would stigmatize him.

If it was a child I didn't know, I'd probably mistake him for a girl.

this

[Imakcerka]

I didn't pick an answer.  I don't think any of them fit how I feel.  I really believe that the body is your temple and the soul is who you are.  I don't agree with self imposed gender lines and I feel it is completely unfair to dictate what is acceptable behavior where it concerns a child who is figuring out who he/she is.  The division clouds our judgement and has allowed too much pain and discomfort.  A boy dressing as a girl?  Is only a being who is biologically different than his counterpart.  He is wearing clothes.  If you want to call it dress go for it but now you're falling in line with social conditioning that has allowed this to even be an issue. 

DD1 tells me all the time she feels like a boy... is that wrong?  Absolutely not, because she acts in way that is different from her biological peer group she feels divided from them and cannot identify.  This causes her angst.  We have allowed this. 

[ErinYay]

I also didn't pick an answer, mostly bc my 2-year-old girl could not be less interested in what she wears, so I'd knee-jerk assume the parent chose the dress for the kid, which I would think was weird. 

A 2-yr-old boy choosing on his own to wear a dress? Wouldn't bat an eye.

[Lazurii]

I picked cute as heck but I don't agree with the "doesn't know he's a boy yet" bit.  Ew.  My son likes to wear dresses and tutus and believe me, he knows he's a boy.

[CanBoo]

Don't like the choices either. It is not a question of cuteness. It is not also whether or not he knows he is a boy. If the kiddo is happy in a dress, I am happy to see a happy kid. That's it.

[ollyoxenfree]

Also couldn't vote. I'm not sure I'd think anything about a 2 y.o. boy in a dress. If asked to think of explanations, I might think that he likes dresses, or he's in a dress because it's more comfortable (waaay more comfortable on a hot, humid day than trousers), or that it's his favourite colour, or that someone (big sister?) thought it would be fun to dress alike and pretend to be twins or a singing group or he badly messed up his clothes and it was laundry day and the dress was handy until his own things were clean, or his parents are old-fashioned Anglophiles (babies/toddlers were often kept in "skirts"/dresses, if I've read my  Victorian novels correctly)..........

[tropicana]

OK, it was our kid. i was going to go with a poll that just said "normal" and "not normal", but instead i used some of the exact language we heard. it certainly generated a lot of interest from the people we saw while he was out dressed this way.

and he IS a cute kid, no matter what he's wearing (or not wearing, as it were)... 

[seraf]

I would think, "two kids in matching dresses. I wonder if they're getting their pictures taken." and I would assume he was a girl. If he had a buzz cut I would assume headlice. 

My own son wore dresses on and off until he was about 4.  When questioned on his clothing choices now he usually says, "it was on top."

He knows he is a boy but has waist length hair and no matter what he is wearing people assume he is a girl. My daughter has short hair and is mistaken for a boy about half the time she is in pink and all the time in any other color. I never get comments when people think she is a boy in a dress. I often get comments about his hair, tho. 

Because my kids aren't easy to gauge at first glance I certainly don't think anything about the way other kids look. I know that some kids are clear in their desires. 

[sky_and_lavender]

As others have said, I probably wouldn't know he was "he" if I didn't know him. But if I did, I think it was fine and nice that his parents didn't have the typical gender hangups about littles.

[Justmee]

Originally Posted by tropicana 

if it helps for the discussion, he had a big sister wearing a matching dress.

I was going to say, I'd think "there is a kid with big sister(s)"

Signed,

Mom of ds after 3 girls who loves all girly things.

[andromedajulie]

I would think, lucky child that his parents understand normal growth in a boy includes wearing dresses and should not be freaked out about. Happy that he's able to have fun, regardless of what his sister's wearing!

[bananabee]

I say put lipstick on him and take a picture! Keep it forever, and put it in the senior slideshow when he's in high school. When he's older, if he's decided he'd rather be a girl, it'll be documentation of him wearing his first dress and how accepting and empathetic his parents were. If he's the average teenage boy and doesn't have gender identity issues, it'll just be a cute pic to tease him about when he brings his girlfriends over to meet you. 

[HeliMom]

When I read this I immdiately thought of that pick of FDR when he was a little boy.

I googled it and found this blog post http://sotospeakjournal.org/2011/04/when-sisters-and-brothers-shared-clothes/SUBMIT

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by HeliMom 

When I read this I immdiately thought of that pick of FDR when he was a little boy.

I googled it and found this blog post http://sotospeakjournal.org/2011/04/when-sisters-and-brothers-shared-clothes/SUBMIT

Interesting article! Thanks for posting it. In my earlier post, I referred to Anglophile parents, but it's good to know that it was a trans-Atlantic tradition to dress boys and girls in skirts/dresses. I just can't imagine learning to crawl in those clothes.

[lovepickles]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree 

Interesting article! Thanks for posting it. In my earlier post, I referred to Anglophile parents, but it's good to know that it was a trans-Atlantic tradition to dress boys and girls in skirts/dresses. I just can't imagine learning to crawl in those clothes.

In some of the Montessori books I've been reading when discussing appropriate clothing for supporting mobility I often see reference to an old superstition from the middle ages about keeping babies in dresses to prevent them from crawling.