These parents let their 6-year-old shave her head, because girls are not their hair
Paige Lucas-Stannard is all about gender neutral parenting, she actually wrote a book entitled, appropriately enough “Gender Neutral Parenting.” Apparently, her approach to gender has made quite the impression on her daughter Aellyn, because after watching her dad shave his head, the 6-year-old asked her mother if she could do the same.
Even though Lucas-Stannard LITERALLY wrote the book on gender neutral parenting, it was hard for her to say yes to her daughter at first.
“My deep, gut feeling about my daughter shaving her head sounded something like this: “DEAR GOD NOOOOOOOO!” she explained on her blog BabyDustDiaries.
She warned Aellyn that if they shaved her head, people might mistake her for a boy, to which her daughter cheerfully replied “That’s OK, Mom, I’ll just tell them I’m a girl.” When Lucas-Stannard explained to her daughter that not everyone believed girls SHOULD shave their heads, Aellyn came back with the awesome “Girls can have their hair any way they want.”
After wrestling with the choice in front of her, Lucas Stannard decided, rather than give her daughter a flat out “no” or try to talk her out of it, she would honor Aellyn’s wishes.
“I will take the discomfort of seeing my daughter without hair over teaching her that she is a doll to be dressed up for others’ pleasure or that any future relationship she is in she should allow someone to manipulate her or dictate her appearance,” she explained on her blog.
Aellyn’s dad Pete, the head-shaving expert of the household, did the honors, and, though Aellyn’s gotten a few odd looks, the uncomfortable remarks her mother feared have failed to materialize.
“We should encourage people to be true to themselves and who they feel they are authentically,” Lucas-Stannard concluded, post head-shaving experience. “Then no energy would be spend crying over cut hair in a beautician’s chair. Energy that can be spent making the world a better place for all.”
We are so impressed with Aellyn’s mom for practicing what she preaches and we love Aellyn’s parents for supporting their daughter’s decision re: what she wanted to do with her hair, even when that meant getting rid of all of it. And, of course, we LOVE Aellyn’s new do, and we love her smile, so clearly the grin of a girl who feels 100% in control of her body and comfortable in her own skin, in no small part thanks to her awesomely supportive parents.
(Images via BabyDustDiaries)
