Accepting Different...

So I know Halloween has yet to actually arrive but we have been to 2 Halloween parties already, And we've had 2 other dress up days at school and music class. For the 2 Halloween parties I have told Sawyer what he was wearing.  To the first it was raining and everyone was cold so I convinced him and Oliver to dress as construction workers and that I would go as one too...

To the 2nd party I convinced him to go as the tin-man with his papa....

but to everything else he has chosen his costume. And it's been the same to both, he has gone as Princess Tiana!

Isn't Princess Tiana cute! OK, now the hard part, I'm OK with him wearing a dress whenever he feels like it, but not all people in this world are as accepting as I am. I have embraced his love of dress up and his fondness of having his nails painted but my fear of the outside world has made it hard for me to completely let go!

Not long ago Sawyer came home one day from the daycare center at our gym and was chewing his nail polish off his fingers. Jeremy and I were both confused, so we asked why he was doing this and he immediately started crying! He explained how there was a boy at the gym, "A big boy" as he described him, who laughed at him and called him a girl for having his nails painted. I was furious!!!! I went MAMA BEAR (as my friend Kim describes the feeling) and wanted to maul the little boy! How dare he make my cub feel inadequate and ashamed of being himself! So after  I chocked down tears I said "well Sawyer, what did you tell him?" "Nothing!" he responded "He was BIG!" So our first lesson in sticking up for yourself happened!

This morning Sawyer was allowed to dress up for school and he was adamant that he wanted to go as Princess Tiana! I was so afraid that he would be laughed at and that his feelings would be hurt...so I explained that I wasn't sure how everyone was going to react and his response (although scary to me) was "MOM, they will all see my face, they will all know I'm a boy and that I'm just pretending to be a Princess for Halloween!" He was right, not one of those kids thought anything about my little boy pretending to be a princess for Halloween.

Which only makes me wonder: When do we start to think that anything outside the norm is weird? When does it become OK to bully others for being themselves? When do we rob our children of there innocence?