Gender Identity

[Cat Herder]

I am doing required milestone observations & assessments and we still have the sections on gender identity to document. It is under Social and Emotional Development, ages 2-3.

• Show awareness of gender identity.
• Know gender identity.

Anyone else nervous to even touch this section recently? How are you handling it, if at all?

[Cat Herder]

I just checked them all "met".

I went with the simplest thing I could come up with, anatomy.

Specifically, Pull-Ups. I put two stacks in the bathroom, pink and blue. They went in one at a time and picked their own. Done.

Surely that won't offend?

Blue are made with more absorbency up front for the location of a urethra in a penis and pink have more in the middle for the location of a urethra in a pelvic floor.

Good? Bad? I mean they are 2-3 years old.

[Sunshine69]

Licensing hasn’t required this area of training in my state yet but it’s probably not long before they will.

I’m not looking forward to it.

[Cat Herder]

Licensing hasn’t required this area of training in my state yet but it’s probably not long before they will.

I’m not looking forward to it.

It came when they changed our titles from "providers" to "educators" and "Family Child Care Home" to "Family Child Care Learning Homes".

Injuries, employee turnover, job abandonment and child abuse claims have skyrocketed. No one is surprised. They stopped teaching care. Now it is reporting data, parenting parents and providing "evidence" to the state so they keep getting federal funding for their self created jobs.

But no one wants to talk about that.

[Unregistered]

Pink pull ups

I just checked them all "met".

I went with the simplest thing I could come up with, anatomy.

Specifically, Pull-Ups. I put two stacks in the bathroom, pink and blue. They went in one at a time and picked their own. Done.

Surely that won't offend?

Blue are made with more absorbency up front for the location of a urethra in a penis and pink have more in the middle for the location of a urethra in a pelvic floor.

Good? Bad? I mean they are 2-3 years old.

I had one boy come with the pink pull ups. You know, pink is his favorite color and he picked them!

[Michael]

I had one boy come with the pink pull ups. You know, pink is his favorite color and he picked them!

I prefer salmon instead of pink.

[Former Teacher]

I just checked them all "met".

I went with the simplest thing I could come up with, anatomy.

Specifically, Pull-Ups. I put two stacks in the bathroom, pink and blue. They went in one at a time and picked their own. Done.

Surely that won't offend?

Blue are made with more absorbency up front for the location of a urethra in a penis and pink have more in the middle for the location of a urethra in a pelvic floor.

Good? Bad? I mean they are 2-3 years old.

I can't roll my eyes enough

People have way to much time on their hands.

Why is it okay for girls to like and wear the color blue but Heaven forbid the boys who like and wear pink? :confused:

[Cat Herder]

I had one boy come with the pink pull ups. You know, pink is his favorite color and he picked them!

He would have been marked "met", too. I really don't have a better plan. I am just winging it here.

The expectations of us rarely come with specific guidelines. I think it is so the writers hold plausible deniability. Of course, that does not mean I am right.

I was happy when they stopped labeling the iron, mop, broom, play kitchen, dolls and clean-up toys "girls" toys. If there is anything this world needs is more awesome dad's and husbands and fewer women who feel it is all their responsibility.

No, I am not ignoring lgbtq couples. I am not aware of a long history of one sided labor roles in their history. As a latchkey girl who was responsible for all chores afterschool while her brother played atari, I imagine breaking free from that must feel glorious. I know it is not that simple. Having an equal partner was just something that sounded like a fancy fairy tail to me. lovethis Stuff of daydreams.

[dolores]

I am doing required milestone observations & assessments and we still have the sections on gender identity to document. It is under Social and Emotional Development, ages 2-3.

• Show awareness of gender identity.
• Know gender identity.

Anyone else nervous to even touch this section recently? How are you handling it, if at all?

Hmmm...it might be time to omit gender identity from assessments or at least update according to the times...?

Whose observation/assessments do you use?

Gender identity is so complex today. We've had children from heterosexual couples and same gender couples identify as opposite gender, including dressing, hairstyle and choosing and insisting on being called names and pronouns of opposite gender. We've had a family who did not want to assign a sex/gender nomenclature to their child, leaving it to child to determine organically. For these scenarios, how does one answer those gender identity question?

[Pestle]

And grammar is still nascent, so my most-verbal girl uses female pronouns to refer to every person, and my most-verbal boy uses male pronouns to refer to every person. Does that mean they flunk gender awareness? ::

I'm not steering my kids toward two different groups of activities, I'm not prepping my girls to be domestic dynamos and my boys to be airline pilots, as long as nobody pees on the floor it's not really relevant at this age what junk they've got under their clothes, and I scrape the poop off whatever tackle they come in with.

As the concrete operational phase takes full force, don't we spend more time correcting gender over-awareness?
"You can't play with that toy; you're not a boy."
"Girls like horses."
"Yes, Sarah has a girl's name and a fluffy pink dress and little white shoes, but she hasn't lived long enough yet for her hair to grow long so I'm going to insist she's a boy."

I found a crummy knockoff Little Golden Book among my grandmother's collection; it's mind-numbingly dull and has no story line to it, just a few sentences about each of the cast of dimple-cheeked midcentury tykes it features. But there's one page where a boy wants to play with another boy who is already occupied with an activity he doesn't want to share, so instead he plays dolls with a little girl, and he's not super-into it but he is satisfied to play with a friend.

Guys, the 1950s were not as regressive as we represent them. I think the super-gendering of prepubescent kids got a huge boost in the '80s and '90s when toy manufacturers realized they could market directly to kids and duplicate everything by putting in a pink or a blue box.

Anyway, we're all potty training right now in a 1/2 bath that opens to the playroom, so there's no question about what sex all these kids are. "Why are you walking back out here with your penis hanging out," I say. "We don't show other kids those parts of our bodies."

[Cat Herder]

I prefer salmon instead of pink.

Me, too. lovethis It is my favorite color to wear along with spring green. It is not too red, too orange or too pink, it is just the right shade of happy.

[Cat Herder]

Hmmm...it might be time to omit gender identity from assessments or at least update according to the times...?

Whose observation/assessments do you use?

My states'.

[NiNi.R.]

I'm not familiar with these type of assessments. My state doesn't do that, so I may be completely off base when I say what I'm about to say. Please correct me if I'm not understanding. Wouldn't it be "met" so long as they are familiar with their own gender, whatever that may be, and recognize that their gender isn't necessarily the same as a peer's gender. For example my newly two year old who has a budding vocabulary, doesn't yet use pronouns, or gender in reference to anyone. I'd say "not met". However my 3 year old declares herself a big girl, and uses pronouns when speaking about others, not just using their name. I'd say "met."

[Cat Herder]

I'm not familiar with these type of assessments. My state doesn't do that, so I may be completely off base when I say what I'm about to say. Please correct me if I'm not understanding. Wouldn't it be "met" so long as they are familiar with their own gender, whatever that may be, and recognize that their gender isn't necessarily the same as a peer's gender. For example my newly two year old who has a budding vocabulary, doesn't yet use pronouns, or gender in reference to anyone. I'd say "not met". However my 3 year old declares herself a big girl, and uses pronouns when speaking about others, not just using their name. I'd say "met."

You are thinking the same way I am. The kids are the easy part. It is the parents questioning/debating I am not prepared for anymore. It used to be easy, "Girls, jump up and down. Boys spin, spin around. Now, everyone, shake it out, shake it out." ::

For the parents who don't want gender pressure, labeling or segregation, that simply does not work, anymore. I am left with figuring out something new. :confused: This is new to me, too.

Clearly, the pull-ups idea won't work long term. Luckily, my current parents just found it funny. It won't stay like that in the next 10 years, though. I need a better plan or I may just start skipping the section..

[Cat Herder]

I can't roll my eyes enough

People have way to much time on their hands.

Why is it okay for girls to like and wear the color blue but Heaven forbid the boys who like and wear pink? :confused:

Yeah. I know, it was not the best idea. It was just the only one I had that seemed less offensive than the previous one. It's been a couple years since I had two year olds and I forgot the questions were on there (it is not on any other age group). I had 1 hour to get done before the baby woke up and I did what I could with what I had. It was not great. :dislike:

FTR, I don't like doing these assessments. I don't want to. I think they are a ridiculous waste of time that should be between the parents and their pediatricians. I just want to do child care, but here we are. ::::