The 3 year old twins I nanny make my heart glad. Thing1 is definitely a girly girl and she also loves super-hero underpants. Thing2 is a sweet, energetic boy who loves to take things apart. He also loves to dance and twirl with his sister. So he wears dresses sometimes.
The fact that his parents are totally cool with that is so great. Our culture forces children into such strict gender roles. I've worked with many families that would tell him that twirling and dresses are not allowed, or even worse, make fun of or shame him into their idea of what it means to be a boy. At such a young age, parental love and acceptance will impact him for the rest of his life.
Dancing is one of the loves of my lifetime, and I was fortunate enough to never have anyone tell me I couldn't. I've struggled with my body image and fitness, and at twelve realized I would never be a prima ballerina, but ballet gave me a body awareness I've enjoyed all my life.
This love of dance has become an integral part of my life mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually. I've seen so many little boys shamed out of dance classes or wearing what they feel good in by parents or peers and it makes me sad. They will never experience movement or music the way I've been given the opportunity to. Even if they do, many have to go through years of overcoming stereotypes surrounding masculinity and dance, so by the time they arrive to an age and place where it's socially acceptable to dance, it can be difficult to build intuitive knowledge of the body and the musicality that we understand so easily as children.
We are all on a gender spectrum. Maybe one day he will become excited about different things, or maybe he will go to school and get teased and shunned for twirling. Eventually, these gender roles our society perpetuates will catch up with him. But he has a safe place to call home, and parents who try their best to let him express himself in healthy ways, and that can make all the difference.
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