This is sort of a delicate subject, but here goes. I was watching Supernanny last night (no, that’s not the delicate part), and one of the side issues was that the 3 year old boy enjoyed playing with his sister’s dress-up clothes and dolls. Dad was unhappy enough about this that the poor little guy was reduced to hiding in the closet (literally!) to get his purse/dress/doll fix. Well, Supernanny was having none of that. “What are you afraid of- that he’ll be a transvestite?” she asked. Dad laughed nervously.. no, of course not, she’s right, that’s just silly. Thing is, we all know what dad was really afraid of, and that remained unspoken.
Supernanny maintained that dress-up is harmless. All kids do it! She made the family all get dressed up to prove her point. She dressed up as a bee- did that make her a bee? Of course not! Lesson learned, and dad chilled out a bit.
So, yay for Supernanny, and her message of accepting kids as they are and not shaming them for what they choose to play with. But what about her zero-correlation message? I thought back to some boys I knew a long time and many jobs ago, who made a beeline to the dress-up area at the start of the day, and NOT to put on the overalls and fireman’s hat, let’s just say. Wonder how they’re doing now?, thought I. Suddenly it occurred to me that the answer was a visit to facebook away. A few clicks and a network change later and I was able to track down one no-longer kid and, yep, gay. So.. it’s a sample size of one, and let me be very clear that I *don’t* think correlation implies causation, or that it even implies 100% correlation. But I don’t think the correlation is zero either, and the message of accepting your kids as they are is far more important. I wish Supernanny had asked the dad the follow-up question- “So, even if your fears are realized, would you love your kid any less?”
