Hi all! So I'm raising a young son in the 2020s and (God willing) 2030s.
I'm actually not intimidated at all by this!
Nonetheless, there are issues in the United States now that weren't issues when I was growing up.
I hear a lot now about sex/gender issues, that weren't things when I was a young person in the 1990s and 2000s.
Some of these include "toxic masculinity," or "gender nonconformism," or of course the LGBT movement.
When I was growing up, I don't think most Americans really gave a whole ton of thought to these things. Well, now we are aware, but we're probably OVERLY aware!
I grew up what was called a "tomboy" in my day. My parents though this was great! My mom loved sports, and was a businesswoman in the 1960s and 1970s back before that was commonplace. In the 1980s and 1990s, she gave that up (except her interest in sports) to have more children.
In the 1990s, I used to say things like, "I will grow up to be a boy." I wore clothes for boys. I liked sports. When I became a teenager, I realized I wouldn't be a boy, and that was ok. But I still liked boy clothes. I used to dress "androgynously," because I thought that style looked neat. I liked Annie Lennox's look. I also continued to like sports. But I also was attracted to the opposite sex, and I didn't harbor any thoughts about wanting to be a boy/male anymore.
I'm SO GLAD I grew up in the 1990s and 2000s when people didn't freak out over, or politicize, these things.
Nowadays, instead of being a "tomboy," I'd be labeled "gender nonconforming," and people would yell at my parents to try and "transition" me!
But I don't want to be a man. I don't even wear men's clothing anymore. But I still like sports. That doesn't make me a man, or a lesbian, or whatever else they try to push on people nowadays.
What does that all mean for my son?
So far, at 18 month old, my son seems pretty typical. He likes to throw things, is physical, likes wheels on toys, and seems pretty mechanical. I don't think he'll have gender issues.
I mentioned before that my husband isn't theistic. He's also rather leftist. And he has trans friends. But he's heterosexual, likes a lot of typically male things (especially computers and science, although I'm a woman and also like those things), and has no interest in "transitioning" himself. He wants to remain a man, and wants me to remain a woman, and we have no problems with our "birth sex."
Nonetheless, son will have to be made aware that there are people out there nowadays...who make big deals about these things. Children raised in the 2020s and 2030s have to contend with weird sex/gender stuff that "Elder Millennials" and "Generation X" like me and my husband, seldom heard about. Of course there's also the Internet everywhere...but my husband and I are good with the Internet. In our day, people worried about "MTV" and "rap music" and "television," but now everyone worries about the Internet. In my mom's day, and my dad's day, people worried about Elvis and the Beatles and "rock and roll" music. It's always something.
But I think we probably over-complicate these things...I do know that my son will have some different challenges from when I was growing up, but I think I'm prepared.
Do you think raising children in 2020s and 2030s will be much harder? I don't necessarily think so, but every generation has its own challenges, and I think I'm fairly prepared to deal with what's going on now so that I'm not timid or weak or fearful about the things going on. I know what to tell my son and how I plan on raising him.
I'm actually not intimidated at all by this!
Nonetheless, there are issues in the United States now that weren't issues when I was growing up.
I hear a lot now about sex/gender issues, that weren't things when I was a young person in the 1990s and 2000s.
Some of these include "toxic masculinity," or "gender nonconformism," or of course the LGBT movement.
When I was growing up, I don't think most Americans really gave a whole ton of thought to these things. Well, now we are aware, but we're probably OVERLY aware!
I grew up what was called a "tomboy" in my day. My parents though this was great! My mom loved sports, and was a businesswoman in the 1960s and 1970s back before that was commonplace. In the 1980s and 1990s, she gave that up (except her interest in sports) to have more children.
In the 1990s, I used to say things like, "I will grow up to be a boy." I wore clothes for boys. I liked sports. When I became a teenager, I realized I wouldn't be a boy, and that was ok. But I still liked boy clothes. I used to dress "androgynously," because I thought that style looked neat. I liked Annie Lennox's look. I also continued to like sports. But I also was attracted to the opposite sex, and I didn't harbor any thoughts about wanting to be a boy/male anymore.
I'm SO GLAD I grew up in the 1990s and 2000s when people didn't freak out over, or politicize, these things.
Nowadays, instead of being a "tomboy," I'd be labeled "gender nonconforming," and people would yell at my parents to try and "transition" me!
But I don't want to be a man. I don't even wear men's clothing anymore. But I still like sports. That doesn't make me a man, or a lesbian, or whatever else they try to push on people nowadays.
What does that all mean for my son?
So far, at 18 month old, my son seems pretty typical. He likes to throw things, is physical, likes wheels on toys, and seems pretty mechanical. I don't think he'll have gender issues.
I mentioned before that my husband isn't theistic. He's also rather leftist. And he has trans friends. But he's heterosexual, likes a lot of typically male things (especially computers and science, although I'm a woman and also like those things), and has no interest in "transitioning" himself. He wants to remain a man, and wants me to remain a woman, and we have no problems with our "birth sex."
Nonetheless, son will have to be made aware that there are people out there nowadays...who make big deals about these things. Children raised in the 2020s and 2030s have to contend with weird sex/gender stuff that "Elder Millennials" and "Generation X" like me and my husband, seldom heard about. Of course there's also the Internet everywhere...but my husband and I are good with the Internet. In our day, people worried about "MTV" and "rap music" and "television," but now everyone worries about the Internet. In my mom's day, and my dad's day, people worried about Elvis and the Beatles and "rock and roll" music. It's always something.
But I think we probably over-complicate these things...I do know that my son will have some different challenges from when I was growing up, but I think I'm prepared.
Do you think raising children in 2020s and 2030s will be much harder? I don't necessarily think so, but every generation has its own challenges, and I think I'm fairly prepared to deal with what's going on now so that I'm not timid or weak or fearful about the things going on. I know what to tell my son and how I plan on raising him.
