Why Gender Neutral Parenting Is The Need Of The Hour

“Don’t tell the kids that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Tell them that they belong to earth.Tell them they are equally responsible and equally entitled”- Says the author as she states how gender-stereotyping is bad.

‘Don’t cry like a girl’

‘He is a boy, but he still helps with his mom’ 

‘He walks like a girl’

These are only a few examples of what we all hear as we grow. We all have become so attuned that we don’t even realize that these words/statements can cause havoc in the times we live in.

Yes, boys and girls are naturally different in several ways and while some differences are because of obvious reasons most are created by us.

When we tell a boy that only girls cry, he will find other ways to vent his frustration which may be detrimental for him and for the society too.

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Why are boys who help in household work considered to be good? Why should work in your own home be gender specific? Little boys who grow up with these thoughts will not be able to handle independent, progressive women when they grow up.

Why are some games only for boys and why is a girl who play with boys called a Tom boy? Why do we object to some boys playing the games which girls play?

When we say that girls are more mature than boys of the same age we are telling the boys that they can be careless, and unorganized just because they are born boys. They grow up with that attitude and depend on their moms, sisters and wives for their needs and the girls grow up thinking that they are responsible so they have to take care of the men in their life.

It is high time we raised boys and girls in equally nurturing environment. Both boys and girls need to be taught the same values, empathy, compassion, respect and confidence.

Any kind of indiscipline should carry the same consequences for both genders.

Don’t tell the kids that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Tell them that they belong to earth.

Tell them they are equally responsible and equally entitled.

I will raise my boys  without any bias. I hope you will too.

Image Source: Pixabay

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