Forcing Kids To Stick To Gender Roles Can Actually Be Harmful To Their Health | ThinkProgress.
Dear Constance…I ran across this fascinating study of gender roles in adolescents and how they are harmed health-wise. It is from Portugal, and fascinates me with how those stereotypes have bound and held captive with the same chains and lies.
It is almost like there is some force in this world…some evil which wants all to be slaves of its hungry destructive self…(coff coff…satan!..coff coff…)
I was most struck how all of the kids surveyed wished they could “just be themselves”…
I get it…I know that feeling…see “Haunted By A Lovely God” in case you have missed my feelings on this…
But I have found my stride, and am running with my Mama, walking with Jesus and finding fulfillment in fulfilling the Father’s will that we each be free and unfettered, to blossom and bloom in His Garden of Grace.
Flower to Flower…
Charissa
Charissa's Grace Notes 
I’ve never understood forcing kids to stick with what is perceived to be stereotypical gender roles. Granted I did some things that looking back hinted at that- my boys played t-ball but it didn’t occur to me to ask my daughter. In my defense, I hate baseball and K, the most opinionated child ever, never showed an interest. BUT, I let them be themselves. If K had wanted to play with Michael’s trains, that would have been fine with me. K played more with boys in social settings and Andrew only had one male friend until he went to kindergarten. Although he actually had more opportunities to play with boys, he preferred to the company of girls.
The funny thing is I wasn’t thinking about anything I did as being harmful to their development- I just couldn’t see the sense in forcing them to act in a way that was not them.
That’s cuz your mind is light-filled and love-filled, and your soul is bent towards your children and their well being. You are blessed by Lady Grace to have a True North compass inside, though it seem cursed at times…and I am blessed by Lady Grace to have your friendship inside my heart!
Good to have a sister, and a fellow warrior in the turning of this tide, and turning it is!!
🙂