'I'm a non-binary 10-year-old'

[sissybaby34]

 Interesting article on the BBC web site today, In some ways I think I can identify with this.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37383914

[Betty]

Since I was a kid I always felt that way.

I liked some kinds of boy stuff, like playing with toy trains, building stuff, mild sports, but not heavy into it. Loved nature but hate hunting & fishing. But I also liked girly things, aside from just their outfits that were way cooler than most boys clothes of the era. Emotionally I was softer, kinder, gentler, & quieter than most boys. Male teachers hated me as a little wimp, where the woman teachers loved me as a sweet good boy.

I hated sports, but didn't mind playing them with close friends from the neighborhood. With friends, it was just fun with neighborhood kids rather than fierce, forced macho competition like promoted in the schools. In the neighborhood the boys & girls played together, where at school, boys & girls were separated for different activities & sports.

Even as late as 1970, girls were still prohibited from wearing shorts, or pants to school. They had to wear dresses only... even in below zero F weather. In the neighborhood, the boys & girls pretty much wore almost the same thing... jeans, shorts, & a t-shirt or ordinary shirt.

What was macho or fem was more blurred in my family too. Mom & dad both did the cooking, cut the hair in the family, painted & remodeled the house, & did the same chores. But dad would be the one to climb on the roof, or under the house to fix stuff, & fix the cars, while mom fixed all the family's TVs, & did the house wiring.

Dad was a crane mechanic at the steel plant, when mom didn't have to take care of 6 kids (5 boys & a girl) she was a TV repair person, & later a secretary for a female politician in the days when it was rare for females to hold an elected public office.

To blur things further, as soon as we were able to walk we were expected to help in the chores. There was no such thing as woman's work or men's work. The boys & girls would sew on a button, mend a hole in a sock, cook, do the dishes, mow the lawn, shovel snow, & clean the house. Indeed, the kids were responsible for all the dishes, & house cleaning. I never saw my mom or dad do dishes, dust, clean house, or run the vacuum.

Except for my sister's kindergarten graduation, & her communion. There were no pretty dresses in the house. Just a few very plain ones. I only saw pretty girls clothes on TV, in school, & in church. Being raised around 5 brothers my sister didn't care about dresses, & not much about girls toys/dolls either. Although we all loved the easy-bake oven. Indeed, she enjoyed sports more than I did.

I had no clear example at home of what a boy or girl should be like at the time. My older brothers were always out & about somewhere, so I spent most of my childhood years with my mom, sis, & dad when he wasn't at work.

So we grew up not knowing much difference between what it is to be male or female beyond the physical differences, & was out of place in the real world of the 1960s.

[Angela M...]

Hey Betty, I was like you also. Not into sports but I did play hockey with friends once in awhile (Canada eh) but I did not like it. I was just looking for somebody to play with when the girls were busy. My father was always trying to get me into some sport but by the time I was about 10 or 11 he gave up and I started figure skating later on with a girl friend and her brother.

I did not like hunting or fishing either but was dragged out a few times with dad and his friends. Funny though my dad did not like either one much so I don't know why we went. I was the kid female teachers liked as I would help out and be the quiet kid in class but one male teacher I did have was a math wiz and I was not that good so he mostly paid attention to those who were good at it.

The other male teacher I had was Gay although nobody was aware at the time and he later quit to join his partner in another province. He and I got along pretty good and were both interested in books. My dad worked long hours, sometimes out of town and they joined bowling leagues so they were gone after supper quite often when we were older so we only saw each other at supper if he wasn't working late. It was months before he knew I was figure skating or skiing and he did not say much about either one.

When I turned 16 my brother was born and he turned out to be the sports star of the family. Dad was in his glory then as he had more time to spend doing hockey tournaments, boy scouts, etc. My sister was quiet and always reading a book somewhere in the house. She could not be bothered with anything else like swimming or skating or even riding a bike. She still can not do any of these things in her sixties.

I always wished throughout my whole life to be turned into the girl I knew I was but there was no talk back then of transgender children and I barely knew about Christean Jorganson until later in my teens. When I was 17 or 18 my doctor told me after a long talk and some tests that he thought I had more female hormones than male and I was not a sissy just efeminate in my mannerisms. He was the only one I ever told, that I thought I should have been born girl other than my mother when she found my girl clothes. She was the one who set up the doctors appointment thinking I was mentally ill. Poor old mom, she was glad later in life that I was more feminine as I was the one to care for her in her later years.   

[jeangurl]

What a brilliant kid (s)he brilliantly enscapulates where many of us sat in our childhoods but we just didnt know where to go or what to do with ourselves.I felt like a girl but loved sports just as many girls do today.I dressed and looked and generally behaved as a boy but was still called a sissy.
It certainly looks like the coming generations are going to have it better 

Luv Jeangurl

[Angela M...]

For ten years old he sounds very intelligent. I hope this works out well for him in future.