You can choose a topic - Essay Example

of such values is the assigning and instilling of traditional gender roles among children, which is the typical parenting norm within the mainstream girl/ boy dichotomy. However, another form of parenting, known as gender neutral parenting (GNP), shifts focus away from categorizing children into specific genders basing only on their biological sex, allowing them to find their own spots of comfort on the gender continuum. In that sense, parents should raise their children in gender-neutral homes where kids can construct their own identities because parents have the most influence over their children’s lives and have a responsibility to educate children.

Because children mimic their parents’ behavior, parents are best placed to influence them towards gender neutrality. Children begin mimicry at birth, but by the time they are one year old, it turns into true imitation, which means they imitate with intent (Zentall, 2006). They will observe and process information conveyed through their parents’ behavior, and since they already understand that such behavior has significance, they will copy it. In that way, gender neutrality can be imparted on them.

Gender neutrality in parenting pertains to not referring to any one particular sex, which means that boys and girls are brought up the same. The most basic indicators of GNP include allowing boys to play with toys and girls to play with toys usually associated with boys, and not emphasizing on gender by way and type of dressing. Parents, therefore, should make the homes in which they raise their children gender-neutral. It is significant for parents to acknowledge that GNP is not aimed at abolishing female or male concepts and creating a genderless world.

Rather, its underlying objective is not to force any predetermined gender standards onto children. It simply provides that a child’s identity should not be suppressed by the parents, which is usually the case when children are restricted to traditional gender