It's a boy! Couple reveal sex of their 'gender neutral' kid after five years

[Demo_Chris]

164. My company does fantasy makeup and facepainting...

At fairs and carnivals and special events. We do this professionally. We work primarily in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana -- so pretty much the buckle of the bible belt.

Every weekend we typically see at least a few little kids who want something nontraditional. It might be a little girl who wants something scary, or a boy who wants flowers on his face or a neon pink butterfly or dinosaur tattoo. The parents generally fall into three categories of response:

Group One: is absolutely unwilling to allow their little guy to be painted up as a pink kitty (or whatever) and they force their kid to do something else.

Group Two: Doesn't want the kid to do whatever it is, and will try to discourage them, but they are willing to go along with it if the kid really wants it.

Group Three: Genuinely doesn't care at all. If their little guy wants his face painted to look like a neon rainbow kitty with extra glitter they don't bat an eye.

Five years ago it was unbelievably rare to see a parent in group three, and even group two's were bloody unusual, but this is changing RAPIDLY. Where five years ago you might see the parent of four year old allow their boy to be a butterfly if he wanted (incredibly, they would often try to apologize to us for the little guy not choosing the correct thing) today we see parents who are fine with it pretty much every day. And not on some infant who can be excused for not "knowing any better" but on older boys and girls -- nine and ten.

It's still amazing to see the reactions of the parents. From the shocked (and occassionally horrified) expressions on their faces it's obvious that in many cases this is the first time they have ever even considered the issue, let alone confronted it in such a clear-cut way. Parents like this often turn to us for reassurance. But like I said, this is all changing unbelievably quickly. Five years ago it was unbelievably rare to run into a parent that would let their little boy be whatever he wanted. Today -- even in small town bible belt Oklahoma -- instead of saying no you are as likely as not to hear the parent saying yes.

It always makes my day a little brighter when I see some Oklahoma rancher smiling and telling his son, "Boy, you are gonna be one COOL butterfly!"

Anyway... sorry if that was a bit rambling. Need more coffee.