Howdy from Houston! I am Jennifer Hardy, and my 4 1/2 yr old DS is gender variant. I am not sure how much this forum is familiar with this term....? For those who don't or are not sure, let me try to put it in a nutshell...
At an early age, about 2, he started showing interest in "girl stuff" as he says! Dolls, dresses, pink, long hair, etc. It has grown and become stronger over the last 2 1/2 years. Now he asks why he is a boy, why God didn't make him a girl instead, and if he died, could he come back as a girl? (scarey to hear as a parent!). We struggled with this sissue for a long time, not knowing what was going on with him,....did we make him like this? (this was our first child, we are very open minded and liberal), could we change it? WHAT WAS IT??? We even were refered to the dreadful Dr. Dobson book
that told us to change him by taking away all his "girl stuff" and replacing it with gender approriate things, and more time with daddy!
FINALLY we found the perfect resource to answer our questions! www.dcchildrens.com in the search the site box, you type in gender variant, and there you go! A parents handbook, resources of books to read, an online support group, professional psychologists that specialize on this issue to answer questions, etc! A dream come true!! NOW we know it wasn't our fault, there is nothing you can do to change it, and that we needed to provide a safe haven place where he can act out his desires of wearing dresses etc. and also the importance of self esteem, understanding and acceptance.
Since then, (about a year ago) I have also started to pull together a local support group here in Houston! We having nothing like the DC group here. I am trying to set up monthly meetings for the families, and playgroups for the kids. I found a very willing church that deals with similar issues (for older teens and adults), and they want to help with this too!
So if there is anyone out here that has gender variant children that live in/near Houston and would like to attend, or if you know someone who might be interested, please get in contact with me! As soon as we can get the word out and get some interest generated...we can begin!
You can contact me directly if you would like at my email address jwhardy@ev1.net or post here. Thanks!!!
Peace and Hugs!
Elfmamma
At an early age, about 2, he started showing interest in "girl stuff" as he says! Dolls, dresses, pink, long hair, etc. It has grown and become stronger over the last 2 1/2 years. Now he asks why he is a boy, why God didn't make him a girl instead, and if he died, could he come back as a girl? (scarey to hear as a parent!). We struggled with this sissue for a long time, not knowing what was going on with him,....did we make him like this? (this was our first child, we are very open minded and liberal), could we change it? WHAT WAS IT??? We even were refered to the dreadful Dr. Dobson book
that told us to change him by taking away all his "girl stuff" and replacing it with gender approriate things, and more time with daddy!FINALLY we found the perfect resource to answer our questions! www.dcchildrens.com in the search the site box, you type in gender variant, and there you go! A parents handbook, resources of books to read, an online support group, professional psychologists that specialize on this issue to answer questions, etc! A dream come true!! NOW we know it wasn't our fault, there is nothing you can do to change it, and that we needed to provide a safe haven place where he can act out his desires of wearing dresses etc. and also the importance of self esteem, understanding and acceptance.
Since then, (about a year ago) I have also started to pull together a local support group here in Houston! We having nothing like the DC group here. I am trying to set up monthly meetings for the families, and playgroups for the kids. I found a very willing church that deals with similar issues (for older teens and adults), and they want to help with this too!
So if there is anyone out here that has gender variant children that live in/near Houston and would like to attend, or if you know someone who might be interested, please get in contact with me! As soon as we can get the word out and get some interest generated...we can begin!
You can contact me directly if you would like at my email address jwhardy@ev1.net or post here. Thanks!!!
Peace and Hugs!
Elfmamma
:
Jemima,
Dugald 
: and Alisdair 
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