Monday, 4 February 2008

Middle class angst

When I first read this in the 'family forum' section of Saturday's Guradian it made me laugh :

My four-and-a-half-year-old son has been saying that he loves a boy at nursery, and that when he grows up, he's going to marry him. His best friend is a girl, who he spends a lot of time dressing up with. He heard my husband and I talking about a gay friend and asked what gay meant, so I told him. His face lit up and he said, immediately, "I'm going to be gay." Are children his age aware of their sexuality?

Then I did my best incredulous face and shouted: 'WHAT THE...?' What are these people thinking? 4 year olds don't understand things that we would consider as obvious like why they can't have ice cream for tea every day or why watching the same episode of Postman Pat 1,000 times might not be a good idea. How the hell do these people think that this kid can grasp the complexities of social and sexual relationships and understand their own desires within that framework? I liked the idea of being French (who knows why) when I was a kid; I haven't, thankfully, grown up to be a beret wearing onion seller.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

or even garlic

Birthday challenge #2

Joe Game Joe's birthday Game Use the arrow keys to 'catch' blocks with the letters (or ...