In the world, it's important for us as parents to encourage our kids to be their authentic selves. For some children, this is easy with no hiccups. But for other kids, who may be pushing some form of idea that's long been stuck in people's heads, holding true to who they are isn't easy. When it happens, however, it creates a form of magic and power that's hard to ignore.
One mom took to Reddit to share a story about her young son, who was able to stand for who he is, even when others were questioning his decisions.
Taking to Reddit, an anonymous mom wanted to share a story that touched on this.
Writing to Reddit's BreakingMom community, in a post that has now been deleted, the mom shared that she has a 4-year-old son who "is into a lot of things that aren't traditional boy things." She explained that her son likes to play with baby dolls, enjoys painting his nails, putting his hair in barrettes, and plays with My Little Pony toys.
"We let him choose a new bike for his birthday recently and he picked one with unicorns and pink streamers," the mom wrote. "It's not a big deal to us, we just roll with it, but it's unfortunately a big deal to a lot of other people."
Recently, her son got into it with a neighbor.
"So my kids were outside playing and the little girls that live across the street were out there too," she wrote. "My son was wearing his minnie mouse dress. The six year old neighbor asked him, 'Why are you wearing a dress? Aren't you a boy?'"
"I am a pretty princess," the mom said her son replied, and the little girl told him, "Boys can't be princesses."
The mom says she was going to speak up, but her son replied first.
She was "about to launch into an explanation of how boys can be princesses" until her son "ran up to [the girl], got in her face, and screamed."
Her 4-year-old got really upset and yelled at the girl, "I am a pretty princess," and his "little fists were clenched, his face red," the mom explained.
The neighbor girl started to cry.
The mom wrote that she tried to calm the children down. She turned to her son, reassured him and attempted to offer some perspective.
"Oh hey buddy, you are, you are a pretty princess," she said to her son. Adding, "she just didn't know."
"I didn't know!" the neighbor sobbed, according to the mom's retelling of the story.
She noted that once the girl said she didn't know boys could be princesses, her son "calmed almost instantly and replied to the little girl, "you didn't know I was a princess?"
The girl explained that she didn't know that, and her son assured her that it's true because "I am a pretty princess so that's what I am."
The little girl said sorry, and that was the end of the conflict.
"I'm just in awe of the ferocious certainty in his little heart about who he is," the mom wrote. "I hope he holds onto it."
The community rallied around the mom, and agreed that as parents, we all hope our kids can be that comfortable being who they are.
"OMG — I wish adults could be like this," one person commented. "'You are a princess/gay/trans/religious/atheist/whatever? I didn't know. Sorry' 'Okay'" the person continued. "World peace, right there."
"You’re doing a fantastic job as a parent, and that’s the foundation for his confidence," another person wrote. "My now 12 year old son used to love walking around wearing my old maternity bra when he was 8. Strapped it on one day and thought he was the s–t."
And it wasn't a one-time thing, that person continued, "happily paraded it around our house and the neighbourhood over a shirt for months before he gave it up. I’d like to think we played a part in the confidence he had to do that. Rock on mama."
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
