Paloma Faith has lately claimed parents should let their children wear what they want.
I have had my fill of gender-specific toys, books, clothes and even pyjamas. I once went to buy my daughter character pyjamas she really wanted only to find them with “boys pyjamas” printed on the front. Infuriating.
Adult clothing I understand will be physically different sizes for men and women in some aspects. But for a two-year-old's pyjamas, there is absolutely no need to gender-specify.
I let my children pick their clothes and their colours themselves. A huge step in my opinion in developing their own minds. Their own individuality.
My husband even goes as far as to say his favourite colour is purple, to which our children laugh. As purple is a girl's colour, right? Wrong!
Colours should not be gender specific and, in my opinion, children should be encouraged to explore what they like and what they don’t like. No labels involved.
Paloma Faith is a celeb that agrees. Paloma Faith has lately claimed parents should let their children wear what they want – even if that means allowing their son to wear a dress.
The 37-year-old said she believed children go through phases and should be allowed to explore what clothes they feel comfortable in.
London-born Faith welcomed her first child in December 2016 with French artist Leyman Lahcine but the pair decided not to reveal its gender.
She said she planned to raise her child as she had been and put her success in the music industry down to having been taught to ignore gender boundaries.
Faith said: “I’m raising my child the way I was raised. It’s one of the main reasons I am the success I am. I was raised in a way that made me feel like anything was possible and that gender was not an issue when it came to me striving to be who I wanted to be.”
She continued: “As a kid, my favourite toys were Lego. I hated dolls. I thought they were awful. I used to cry looking at them. I liked teddy bears and I liked Lego. I think we have to leave it open to your child to decide.
There’s nothing wrong with any of it.”
“If I had a son and he started saying to me, ‘I want to wear that dress’, I don’t see why that’s a problem at that moment in his life.
“But that doesn’t mean that in 20 years’ time he’s still going to want to wear a dress. You go through phases and we have to accept that.”
I wholeheartedly agree. How can we expect to raise children with their own minds and thoughts if we are telling them from the get-go what they can and cannot like, wear and/or play with?
Children need the freedom to explore what they like and don’t like and to learn about who they are and what they stand for. If we don’t let them do this as children they will find it much harder to figure out as adults.
She went on to explain she believes there’s ‘nothing wrong’ with letting a child make their own decisions regarding their gender and how they present it.
Laura Doyle, Mum of 4. Kyle 9, Noa Belle 4, Briar 2 and Milla 12 months. Breastfeeder, co-sleeper, coffee drinker. Staying positive and inspired by the chaos of it all. Follow her on Instagram.