Gone are the days of gender-based stereotypes where cricket and football were meant for boys and cooking was a domain for girls. Gender Neutral Parenting is the new norm for raising kids that are more resilient, liberal, and avant-garde. Raising your kids without imposing gender norms helps them develop new identities by exploring their interests in different domains.
Know about Gender-Neutral Parenting Style
Before you embrace this idea into your parenting style, here is everything you should know about Gender Neutral Parenting, its benefits and challenges.
Gender Neutral Parenting Definition
Gender Neutral Parenting focuses on raising a kid without rigid expectations based on gender. In other words, you stop telling your kids that certain things are meant for only girls and others for only boys. This parenting approach does not follow any definitive rules.
Raising kids in Gender-Neutral Envirnoment
You can embrace Gender Neutral Parenting Style even before your baby is born. You can incorporate a gender-free approach into your parenting style in the following ways:
Decorating Your Child’s Nursery Using Neutral Color tone
We all have certain color schemes and themes in mind when we welcome a baby into the family. However, you can decorate the nursery of your little one using intriguing neutral color tones and engaging gender-neutral themes without picking a default pink for a girl and a default blue for a boy.
Gender-neutral nursery for baby
Using Gender Neutral Language
Using gender-neutral pronouns and baby names until your child expresses a preference can take your parenting to the next level.
Choosing An Assortment of Toys and Activities
You can never know what your child might be interested in until you expose them to different types of activities and let them try those firsthand. Allow your kids to play with a variety of toys like board games, dolls, kitchen sets, miniature vehicles, and building blocks.
Further, help your kids pursue different sports and activities that they find interesting irrespective of their gender.
Selecting Gender-Neutral Clothing
One dilemma we often face while choosing clothes for our kids or expected newborns is selecting the color and type of clothing. However, you can find many cool and trendy gender-neutral baby clothes from leading brands. Pick neutral color tones and gender-neutral designs until your children develop their color preferences, fashion trends, and clothing brands.
Exposing Your Kids to Diversity And Experimentation
You can introduce your kids to various activities by motivating them through different stories, role models, and media sources. You can read motivating children's books and encourage them to watch podcasts and videos of achievers who have done wonders in their fields irrespective of gender.
Book Club for Kids
Let them experiment and explore different domains. Make sure that you address your kids with non-gendered non-stereotyped compliments while encouraging them so that they can develop a high sense of self irrespective of their gender.
If you need to learn more about the topic you can read Gender-Neutral Parenting books to have a better understanding of the concept and how to implement it into your daily parenting style. Further, tons of Gender-Neutral Parenting articles from renowned parenting bloggers can provide a deep insight into the subject.
Gender Neutral Parenting Pros and Cons
Gender-Neutral Parenting provides kids with freedom of expression without any judgment. Children raised with a gender-neutral parenting style seem to be more open and accepting as they grow up. Here are certain pros and cons of gender-neutral parenting in a nutshell:
Increased Creativity
Kids raised in a gender-neutral environment are highly creative and more expressive. They can freely choose between different interests and varied identities.
Improved Confidence
Kids raised with a gender-neutral approach grow and develop into confident people. They are always true to their authentic self and confidently pursue different interests and hobbies, regardless of any restrictions.
Do you agree with gender-neutral parenting style?
Enhanced Self-Esteem
Children who are allowed to explore different domains freely, without any stereotypes, develop a higher level of self-esteem and self-love. They are more aware and grow into better leaders.
Open-Mindedness
Kids exposed to gender-neutrality are more open-minded toward new ideas and diverse views. They can freely make their choices without pressure or social norms.
Related post- Raising Inclusive Kids- Tips and Strategies to Follow
Peer Pressure and Resistance
The idea of gender equality or Gender Neutral Parenting opposes the traditional parenting style. Therefore, other parents or peers may find it confusing and unacceptable. As a result, the child may have difficulty adjusting to new expression choices and pronouns when attending school or meeting other kids. Moreover, it can be challenging and frustrating to avoid stereotypes in a social setup completely.
Unconscious Bias
When others in the family are not implementing this parenting approach, it can be draining for parents. Subsequently, parents following a gender-neutral approach often struggle to balance their ideas with prevalent beliefs.
References-
https://www.themotherbabycenter.org/
https://parenting.firstcry.com/
https://www.choosingtherapy.com/
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