I read an article today about a family who chose not to share the gender of their newborn baby with the rest of the world. They named their child with a non-gender specific name and refer to the child only in non-gender specific pronouns. The point? "What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It's obnoxious….In fact, in not telling the gender of my precious baby, I am saying to the world, 'Please can you just let Storm discover for him/herself what s (he) wants to be?!."
I was completely caught off guard by this thought process. I know that there are some parents who take a more ‘hands off’ approach to parenting but this adds a whole new dimension to NOT parenting! Let’s not consider the bullying that could occur because the boy (if that’s even the child’s gender) chooses to wear a dress to school. Let’s not consider the confusion that the child might encounter regarding their sexuality when they are teenagers. We’ll not even consider the emergency that could ensue when the child doesn’t know which public restroom to enter!
A number one responsibility of parenting is to make decisions for a child and as they grow to direct the child’s decision-making skills in a manner that is consistent with the value system of the parents! AND, I believe that those decision-making skills must be Bible-based! The Proverb writer says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6 NIV) A child does not have the knowledge nor the experience to make decisions that will be beneficial or productive for their life. If a child had that ability, then what would be the point of parenting at all?
Parents, we have been charged with the responsibility of bringing up our children in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord…not to mention a manner that is suitable for society. It is not society who dictates gender roles. God set those in place at the time of the creation. It is time for parents to realize that the most important role in which we will ever engage is that of training our children to make choices that are good and pleasing to God! It doesn’t matter what society thinks! It doesn’t matter what left-winged buffoons think! The bottom line is that parents DO have a responsibility to their children and to the Lord to teach them critical thinking skills and that entails making decisions for them…decisions that cause them to understand what is expected of them in society, and more importantly what is commanded by God Almighty!
This is definitely a bazaar case. When I read an article like this, my first gut feeling is that we are actually not getting the whole story -it's just too weird.
ReplyDeleteI often get this feeling anytime I read a "Child is expelled from school for stupid reason" story. Typically, that story can be explained by the fact that this is not the real reason he was expelled, but that it was the other 5000 things that the child did and this dumb thing was the last straw.
In this case, for example, I wonder if the child has some medical disorder that the parents have chosen to cover up with this facade. This type of thing happens very rarely, but really does occur. Typically, in such a situation, the parents just choose a gender for the child, but maybe here they are choosing not to, and instead will let the child choose when he/she is ready. Is that better? Is it worse? I don't know. I certainly don't know that this is even happening, I just made that up 2 minutes ago.
I just wonder whether or not its fair to pass harsh judgement on someone that we only know from a 500 word article.