NPR published an article telling parents what they can do about “gendered toys”.

Unfortunately, the article doesn’t mention the most important thing an adult can do:

Teach kids that toys aren’t living things so they don’t have genders.

Like cars, boats, mailboxes, pizza, and corduroy pants, toys are neither male nor female.

(Boats with names like, “Estelle” or “Mary” are still just objects without gender.)

The problem for NPR (and anyone who worries about the gender of lifeless objects) is that gender doesn’t exist anymore.

“Gender neutrality describes the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people’s sex or gender, in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than another.”

Closed-minded folks like me are hamstrung by the silly notion that gender determines who is better suited to bear children or pee standing up.

My simple brain thinks there are only 2 options.

Progressive brains assure me there are many more.

What toy is appropriate for a three-year old demigender human?

Can I give a stuffed unicorn to a genderfluid child identifying as female?

More importantly, is a toy gun EVER appropriate under ANY circumstance?

I’ve got some advice for parents concerned about raising gender neutral kids.

Relax.

Your kid’s gender is determined by biology.

A toy’s gender is determined by your kid.

When you hand a girl a baseball mitt, she remains a girl.

The mitt becomes, “a girl’s mitt”.

When you hand a boy a Barbie Doll, he remains a boy.

The doll becomes, “a boy’s Barbie”.

Your job as a parent is to teach your kids this lesson.

They won’t figure it out reading articles from NPR.