Aerial Circus

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laineyyyyy:

ebullientefflorescence:

ticktockdeathclock:

r0bertbrowniejr:

Yesterday my mom posted a picture on Facebook of my 5 year old brother Sam wearing a pair of shoes he picked out for his first day of preschool.

She explained to him in the store that they were…

This is so Quinn! I’ve gone out of my way since he was born to give him all the space I safely can to try everything and to explore his world and it’s various aesthetics freely. His tastes naturally vary wildly, of course (as every kid’s would when left to their own devices, I believe). I’d say 70% of the time he veers toward the stereotypical “male” things, but he also likes what he calls “beautiful” things, like flowers, unicorns, sequins and glitter. And who can blame him, right? Shiny shit is great! I never suggest or voice any kind of personal opinion either way, except to join him in being pumped about what he chooses for himself. I consider it my #1 job as a mother to be pumped, boundaries and discipline second.

We live in a very progressive/liberal area, but I still sometimes get a little worried (just deep inside my own self) that the kids at his preschool will make fun of him for some of his choices. I’ve even thought about the way the conversation would go sometimes. Like his currently pink glitter painted toenails, for example, or the winter gloves he picked for himself- covered in red glitter lip prints with “I LUV U” written across the cuffs. But then he actually gets to school and all the kids just think he’s the best, you know, because he is. It will get more complicated as he gets older, I know that. I’m relieved and happy, though, that he’ll at least have the first five years of his life free to explore himself without gender policing— at home or at school.

Raising Quinn in this way, which seems like such a small no brainer of a thing, has also had an effect on my mother (who once called me- less than affectionately- a “misguided gender radical” because I gave him a gender neutral name on purpose). She recently took him out shopping and offered to buy him a toy, and he chose a pink and purple plastic shopping basket of play food. She told me her first instinct was to prompt him toward the red and blue one that was also for sale instead, but then she thought about how “silly that was” and didn’t say a word. One family at a time!

(Source: danielnadcliffe)