Pearl.
Apparently the other day my stepfather came home and my little brother (5 years old) wasn’t in the living room and wasn’t answering to his name being called. My little sister (3 years old) says, “His name is not Brennen, his name is Pearl.” And out waltzes my brother in my sister’s dress up tutu paired with heals and a purse.
The thing that gets me about this? It was my mother who said we should ‘subtly discourage’ him from this behavior. I would expect that from my stepfather, the manly Army man, but not my mother. My stepfather actually came to his defense and said that he was just playing pretend and it was okay.
He’s five years old - let him play in a tutu while he’s still young enough not to realize some people get hurt for doing similar things. Let him play in a tutu carefree for a little while, before he’ll have to grow a strong backbone and even thicker skin to live in a society that will unjustly shame him if he chooses to wear a dress when he’s older.
I wanted to reach through the phone and slap some sense into her.
