Father in rural Germany finds his young son likes to wear dresses; does the same

[radishhead]

http://www.emma.de/ressorts/artikel/kinder-jugendliche/vater-im-rock/

Basically a father discovers his young son who is 5 has a preference for dresses over any piece of clothing. In a fairly religious rural part of Germany this kid obviously didn't make a lot of friends with such a "strange" outfit. Rather than chastise his son or tell him that's how society is the father decided to also start wearing dresses to make him feel normal.

"Yes, I am one of those fathers who is trying to raise his children with gender equality. I'm not one of those pseudo-intellectual daddies that rambles on about studying gender justice, and then, as soon as the child is born, falls back into the comfortable and clichéd gender roles: he realizing himself through work, she taking care of the rest."

 

A couple of thinking points that arose for me when reading the article-

 

- If this happened to you as parent what would you do? Would you endorse it like this father did?

- Is it our "duty" as parents to make sure our child knows what society deems as normal and abnormal?

- Is forcing gender roles a lesser evil than letting your son get used to a choice he doesn't yet understand the consequences of?

 

 

I'm not sure what I would do about letting him wear dresses- I almost certainly wouldn't do it myself. How about you guys?