Gender Blocking- vs. Gender Celebration

So recently I have read two articles in regards to babies and their gender, the first was in regards to a new trend in which the expecting parents throw a party complete with cake, decorations and gifts around the 20wk mark, this party is a reveal party in which they receive the results of an ultra sound showing the gender of the soon to be arrival. There are guessing games and then the big surprise is revealed when they open the envelope Oscar style. Hmm sounds an offal lot like a baby shower to me! No it’s not they still have a baby shower too! I know the excitement of finding out what that little bundle you are carrying is going to be, being able to plan the nursery and buy the appropriate cute little outfits it’s wonderful that technology has allowed us to be able to not have to wait until the arrival of the little one (I hate surprises and love to be prepared we found out with all 3 of our kids) To each their own I guess, not sure that I would throw a party to share the news I freely shared that with all of our friends and loved ones no cake involved, on second thought any excuse to have cake is good enough for me. Now the second article that I read was on the completely opposite end of the spectrum in which the parents of a new baby are keeping the child’s gender a secret their reasoning that they do not want their child to be pigeon holed into a specific gender, they feel that their baby should be allowed to decide for its self what it wishes to be, how it wants to dress and what toys it wants to play with.
“They say that kids receive messages from society that encourage them to fit into existing boxes, including with regard to gender. "We thought that if we delayed sharing that information, in this case hopefully, we might knock off a couple million of those messages by the time that Storm decides Storm would like to share," says Witterick.”
The parents have a point about the expectations that society puts onto a child and onto adults for that matter the invention of television and the internet has made advertising a breeze, but gender roles have been around since the dawn of time this is nothing new, this is whoever a new approach to dealing with gender stereotypes. Whether this is a good choice or a bad one remains to be seen, however in my opinion this approach is not going to resolve the problems with gender stereotypes and will probably cause the child in question to have more problems than they would have had they been raised the gender(sex) they were born. For starters gender is not something that someone chooses it is determined at birth you are either born a male or a female it’s that easy and should not be made out to be difficult (ok I do admit that there are those cases in which children are born transgender but that in its self is a whole other discussion) I agree 100% that a child should be allowed to make the choices as to whether they want to play with trucks or dolls so as a good parent if you are concerned about this issue then the solution is simple buy both types of toys and allow the child to choose which one they wish to play with and don’t be surprised when they end up playing with both types of toys children this young don’t know the difference between the toys they are playing with as much as they know that it is something to play with. I have witnessed all three of my children playing one minute with a doll then the next racing cars along the floor, are they confused about their gender not at all they are happy, well-adjusted kids that are capable of playing with many types of toys. Childhood is a confusing time for kids so why would a parent want to add to this confusion it would be better to let the child know that they are either a boy or a girl and that they are accepted for the individual that they are. My daughter likes to dress herself and because I want her to be able to make her own choices and have her own sense of style I allow her to choose what she wants to wear(within limits the other day she wanted to go to the park bundled up in like 7 different articles of clothing when it was +20 outside, I made her remove some layers) Dealing with gender stereotypes starts at home with the way that you raise your children, both my son and daughter(my youngest is still just a babe) are shown how to clean and know that both daddy and mommy clean the house, they know that we are equal partners in the relationship and that neither of us is better than the other, I want all of my children to know that they are valuable as an individual regardless of gender (or special needs as we deal with stereotypes all the time in regards to my sons autism) and that they are capable of doing anything they choose to do regardless of social expectations. It is your job as a parent to ensure that your child is happy, healthy and well adjusted. Part of your job is to ensure that your child is capable of entering society and able to properly adapt to situations in a manner in which they are able to make choices that will allow them to live within society. If you raise a child without restrictions you will raise a menace to society. The choices that your children make are inevitably their decisions once they are old enough to properly think for themselves, prepare them to be able to make these decisions and support them in the decisions that they choose to make. Society today is full of many many different types of people with different, cultural, religious and sexual believes and individuals now a days are fortunate enough to live in a fairly open minded society where gender roles and boundaries are forever being pushed and expanded.
"We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now--a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place? ...)," it said.”
These parents would be much further ahead in raising a forward thinking individual if they were to concentrate on the important issues in life such as teaching your children to value themselves as individuals, and to have respect for others, to take responsibility for their own actions these attributes are sadly missing in many of today’s children and adults. Whether you decide as a parent to celebrate the sex of your child or keep it quite from the rest of the world this is still a child and needs to have your love, and support no matter what.