[Pollster1]

The mom: "'To have told him, “Pull yourself together, act like a boy,” would have been tantamount to child abuse' . . . Saffron remembers how, from an early age, Sam would scream and struggle when she tried to dress him in boys’ clothes and cried every time they cut his hair. So they began to compromise, buying boys’ sweaters in pink and designer Moschino T-shirts that appealed to Sam’s feminine side.

To help her son to make good decisions is "child abuse", but to let a toddler then preschooler then little boy make life-changing decisions that may initially have been based on nothing more than a whim is good parenting? All of my boys disliked being dressed and having their hair cut (or combed or washed) at some point and for an extended period. The difference is that I didn't allow them to have a say before they were old enough to understand their decisions. The difference is that I never compromised or negotiated in response to a child's tantrums. The difference is that my version of "child abuse" helped them to grow up, and hers is helping a confused boy to stay lost in the unimportant. I find this story disturbing, but more than that terribly sad. This will not end well, and I suspect it would have been easily avoidable if either parent had a backbone.

[the invisib1e hand]

poor child was born to a lunatic.

[bgill]

While at school does he go to the girls’ or boys’ restroom? Or will the taxpayers be made to pay for special restroom just for the It’s All About MEEEE! crowd?

[wintertime]

If he protests about getting his teeth brushed does the mom let his teeth rot?

( Just wondering)