Tales of Gender-Free Parenting

When we first found out we were pregnant, Spouse was insistent that we not find out the sex of the baby. I asked why. "The kid has got the rest of its life to be gendered. Why start now?" That spouse, he's a smart one.

• Making lunch, DQ asks what Daddy is having.
  Spouse: "I'm having a grilled cheese sandwich, just like you."
  DQ: "You can't have that. It's only for girls." Now, this is a phrase we hear a lot these days, and we work very hard to convince her that no, there is really very little that has to be gender-specific in this world.
  Spouse: "Why not?"
  DQ: "Because it's a girl cheese sandwich."
  
  
• At daycare one day, the toddler class had been playing with ponytails, so when I picked him up, Wild Boy had a fantastic spike of hair in the center of his forehead. He thought this was great, so we left it in (and 3 other toddlers, all with at least one ponytail, waved goodbye to us.) That night, at dinner, a 10 year old boy came up to me and asked, "Is that a boy or a girl?"
  Quinn: "He's a boy."
  Boy: "Then why does he have a ponytail?"
  Quinn: "Because he likes it." Convinced that we were weird, the boy left.
  It was only then that I realized the boy had an earring.