by Jennifer Shipp

Created on: July 21, 2009   Last Updated: July 23, 2009

Children are not bound by the same social norms adhered to most religiously by adults. In the first five years of life, children are typically able to put a great deal of information together about what is considered acceptable and what is considered unacceptable social behavior in our culture. While children are children, and not adults, they can behave in extraordinarily alien ways, through the eyes of their parents. And parents, look on, horrified that their child could come up with ideas that fall so far outside the social norm of what is acceptable.

Sexuality is a hot button for a lot of parents. Parents generally want their children to have a normal sexual development. By normal, I mean development which presents few, if any bumps, curves, detours, oddities, or abnormalities that must be navigated or discussed by parent and child. Most parents, if they had their druthers would grow their children like plants without ever bringing up the topic of sex, sending them off into their marriage bed to live happily ever after, without consequence. But the reality is, sexuality rarely has a steady course. Indeed, for boys and for girls, sexuality, from a young age is a fragile and yet immeasurably valuable aspect of self. It is not like a stuffed animal that can be put in the corner, underneath a pile of other things. Sexuality is the antique porcelain tea cup that has been passed down for generations. Parents fear the time when they have to put that antique tea cup into the care of their children, but know the tea cup must be passed down.

Your son may simply want to wear girl's clothes because they observe their parents doting over a baby sister and mistakenly believe that the doting has to do with the little girl's pretty clothes. Or perhaps your son is simply fascinated with the way skirts twirl. Perhaps your son is enthralled with all things female as many men are. But before we consider what to tell him, we should consider some of the other reasons why a young boy may want to dress in girl's clothes and reasons why parents may not know what to say.

Because sexuality is fragile, particularly during the formative years as children move toward puberty, parents should exercise care in the way they respond to their child in regard to their young sexual behaviors. A young boy who wants to dress in girl's clothing, for example, may inspire fear in his mother and father through his behaviors. Naturally, parents of a young boy who wants to dress in girl's clothing

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