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There’s a story going viral on Facebook, according to Huffington Post. Mom blogger Katie Vyktoriah (A Mother Thing) wrote an impassioned entry about her 2-year-old son who was accosted in Walmart. Why? Because he had chosen to wear a pink headband. A grown man dressed in camo clothing pulled the headband from her son’s head and cuffed him on the side of the head, saying “You’ll thank me later”. When the mom got (quite justifiably) upset, he allegedly snarled “Your son is a f*cking fa***t." adding that, "he'll get shot for it one day.” (sic).
She goes into some detail in her entry about her adorable son, and how he likes to choose his own clothing, preferring pink some days to others.
She has since pursued charges against the man (it’s never ok for someone to touch your child, right?) and is livid that an adult could assign such vile words to him, a toddler for whom the world of sexuality is still years and years away.
Whatever the reasons the man had for accosting her, the world remains a brutal place. If your child decides to wear something unusual, you may find yourself having to come to his or her rescue. No matter how much fun Katie’s child was having, she was forced to deal with hatred in a manner she’d never anticipated.
The dress-up box
Dressing up at home is absolutely normal for a child. You may insist your child changes into more regular clothing for a trip to the shops, but you could also be the kind of parent who understands that it’s simply a child having fun, and that other people should recognise that children don’t fit in to adult “rules” because they aren’t adults!
You can read the rest of her blog and see for yourselves if you agree, but here’s a picture of my youngest son (above) a few years back (he doesn’t read this, so don’t worry!). He’s a grazed-knees kid who loves physical activity and is as tough as nails, but he also went through the completely normal stage of wearing dress-up clothes. As his dad, I know pink is simply a colour, and a toddler having fun is just that; no more, no less.
Do you think kids should only wear dress-up clothes at home?
There’s a story going viral on Facebook, according to Huffington Post. Mom blogger Katie Vyktoriah (A Mother Thing) wrote an impassioned entry about her 2-year-old son who was accosted in Walmart. Why? Because he had chosen to wear a pink headband. A grown man dressed in camo clothing pulled the headband from her son’s head and cuffed him on the side of the head, saying “You’ll thank me later”. When the mom got (quite justifiably) upset, he allegedly snarled “Your son is a f*cking fa***t." adding that, "he'll get shot for it one day.” (sic).
She goes into some detail in her entry about her adorable son, and how he likes to choose his own clothing, preferring pink some days to others.
She has since pursued charges against the man (it’s never ok for someone to touch your child, right?) and is livid that an adult could assign such vile words to him, a toddler for whom the world of sexuality is still years and years away.
Whatever the reasons the man had for accosting her, the world remains a brutal place. If your child decides to wear something unusual, you may find yourself having to come to his or her rescue. No matter how much fun Katie’s child was having, she was forced to deal with hatred in a manner she’d never anticipated.
The dress-up box
Dressing up at home is absolutely normal for a child. You may insist your child changes into more regular clothing for a trip to the shops, but you could also be the kind of parent who understands that it’s simply a child having fun, and that other people should recognise that children don’t fit in to adult “rules” because they aren’t adults!
You can read the rest of her blog and see for yourselves if you agree, but here’s a picture of my youngest son (above) a few years back (he doesn’t read this, so don’t worry!). He’s a grazed-knees kid who loves physical activity and is as tough as nails, but he also went through the completely normal stage of wearing dress-up clothes. As his dad, I know pink is simply a colour, and a toddler having fun is just that; no more, no less.
Do you think kids should only wear dress-up clothes at home?
