"Parent Keeps Child's Gender Secret"

In the article, “Parents Keep Child’s Gender Secret”, Jayme Poisson reports the decisions that parents, David Stocker and Kathy Witterick, make to keep their baby, Storm’s gender a secret, and to encourage their two boys, Jazz and Kio “to challenge how they’re expected to look and act based on their sex”. (pg.2) Five years old Jazz has already chosen some preferences—he loves the color pink, wearing dresses, and styling his long hair with two braids in the front and one in the back. Although, he likes to dress like a girl, he likes to be acknowledged as a boy. Kio on the other hand is younger—he’s two; he loves the color purple though he’s happy in any kind of pajamas, so it is uncertain yet on what his preferences are as a gender. The parents parenting came from the influence of their liberal families where, Stocker grew up listening to music sending gender neutrality messages, such as: Free to Be…You and Me, a 1972 record; and Witterick grew up watching her brothers experiment with handbags and lipstick as David Bowie and Mick Jagger did in the 80’s. Therefore, the parents chose to do this unusual parenting because they believe “children can make meaningful decisions on their own.” (Pg.1), and that its “a tribute to freedom and choice in a place of limitation.”(pg.2) I agree it’s a great idea that the parents are very supportive and encouraging with their children to be whoever they want to be. However, I don’t agree that the parents should be reinforcing this freedom on gender identity so soon, before giving their children the guidelines of who they are as a gender or sex.
David Stocker and Kathy Witterick are very understanding and encouraging parents in allowing their children to take whichever gender role they want to take. There are many parents from generations prior to the “Millennial” generation that do not have that quality, especially if they come from traditional gender role families. Therefore, I agree with the views that they are trying to apply