Quote Originally Posted by Bea_ View Post
I am wondering how much your viewpoint was present before becoming involved with your SO.
My oldest son is in his late 30s, my youngest in his late 20s.

From the very beginning I did my best to raise caring, nurturing boys. I have three sons, no daughters. Their dress-up chest had all sorts of things in it, from boas, to Peter Pan tights, to my old discarded high boots with heels, among an assortment of many different things. I chose toys for them that were non-gendered, for example a circus with entertainers, a safari set with animals, all sorts of building sets, tons of arts and crafts supplies, books galore, science kits, in addition to the action figures they asked for (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Wars figures for example ). One summer, I kept their school's elaborate Playmobil dollhouse (which I was tasked to glue together with Crazy Glue), and my boys played with the dollhouse until it was returned in September. I encouraged the expression of their emotions and I never told them that boys shouldn't cry. When they cried, I would hug them until they stopped, if they wanted to be hugged. I refused to buy them toy guns or other violent toys until their father bought them a bb-gun when they were teenagers. When the oldest son's friend came out to his parents as gay at the beginning of high school, I had a long talk with my sons about respecting everyone's sexuality. When my youngest son and I saw a crossdresser at the post office (he was 11 or 12), and he asked "Is that a man??" I told him there are people who are outside of the gender binary and they deserve to be respected for who they are.

All of this was years and years before I met my SO.

If I had been blessed with a daughter, I would have raised her the same way. I would not have encouraged playing with Barbies (unrealistic beauty standards), and I would have prioritized her abilities, talents and intellect more than her looks, just as my parents did for me.

Today my boys are wonderful, caring, well-adjusted adults who have all chosen fabulous, caring, accomplished, strong women as their life partners. My oldest son and his wife have a new baby girl, and he is as nurturing with the baby as I was with him.

Most of my friends raised their children the same way. We did our best to eliminate boundaries and restrictions for both boys and girls.