Seth Menachem's 2-year-old son, Asher, doesn't know how to get dressed on his own, but he can get undressed on his own. Often he'll pull off his clothes and demand to wear one of his big sister's sparkly dresses or puffy skirts.
Menachem began to oblige his fussy son, but the father admits he was a bit embarrassed in public. It wasn't that he cared that his son wanted to wear a skirt or a dress — I think we all stand to remember there was a time when women weren't allowed to wear pants — it was that he didn't want other parents to think he was forcing his son to wear those things.
Still, he wanted to be a supportive father, and let Asher wear what he wanted. One day, he brought his son to a children's birthday party. While some parents didn't mind the attire, others told him his son was gay or that he would "turn" his son gay.
"If he is gay, it’s not because of anything I did. It’s because he’s gay. And maybe it’s a stage. And maybe it’s not. But either way, I don’t want him to ever feel like he wasn’t able to express himself because his parents didn’t support him," Menachem wrote in a blog post.
The father doesn't know exactly why Asher likes dresses and skirts, and he doesn't yet know if it means anything at all. What he does know is that he would rather be supportive to his 2-year-old than make him feel ashamed.
While he was taking the kids out for a walk one night, his daughter dared him to wear one of Mommy's dresses. If Menachem doesn't really care what others think, this would certainly be the moment of truth.
"I said, 'No.' But she kept begging," he explains. "I said, 'People will laugh at me.' She said, 'If they do, I’ll tell them to go away.'" Menachem couldn't argue with that.
The father put on a dress, put his son in a dress, and his daughter wore a dress as the trio proudly went out in public.
Please SHARE if you think it's better to be a supportive parent than a judgmental one.
