Gender Nuetral Children

I would say I agree with Dr. Harold Koplewicz with this matter. When we watched the short documentary on Ryland in class, I was moved by the way his parents handled the situation of him wanting to identify with the opposite gender. The alarming rate of transgender depression and suicide attempts when they attempt to make the change later in life is terrifying for any parent. By allowing Ryland to identify the way he wants, his parents are hoping to save Ryland from a life of depression and provide him with a strong loving support system. I actually admire the way the parents handled the situation. However, in this matter, the parents are from the start identifying their baby boy as "infant". Although some people may find it disturbing and not fair, children need to be guided in the direction of their gender in order for them to develop properly. By raising your child gender neutral, before them even giving the hint they want to change genders, could be overwhelmingly confusing for a child. This type of child raising could be even worse for the psychological development of a child. Like Dr. Koplewicz said, "When children are born they are not a blank slate, we do have male and female brains. There's a reason why boys do more rough and tumble play, there's a reason why girls have better language development skills". Humans, like any other organism, are wired a certain way. Children are born with a sex, they are no born a neutral object. I looked for statistics on gender neutral parenting to see what kind of affects it has on children, and there really are none. Most of the information supporting or criticizing gender neutral parenting is based on opinion or no real factual evidence. I did read on livescience.com that even if you raise a gender neutral child, the child is so surrounded by gender, especially in the home with both parents identifying, they will eventually identify as one or the other. I think gender neutral raising should be something implemented after the child can make his/her choice, not before. I feel that if a family is to raise their child gender neutral, they must raise them completely neutral. Not dress them as a girl one day and as a boy the other, it shouldn't be leaning toward any gender.