While the child may not turn out to be gay, it's really great to see how much parents can do to make the environment diverse, loving and accepting of differences. While my parents always prided themselves on being open-minded and accepting, the fact is I was raised in a country were being homosexual actually lands you in prison and subjects you to the death penalty. Although my mother has a very close homosexual friend in a very serious relationship, him and his partner don't live in my homecountry and haven't come out to his parents (he's forty-ish).
On the other hand, I still haven't had a boyfriend (I'm a girl and twenty). I just moved to London a year ago, and I do feel like an alien (almost everyone has already slept with someone): most people here have questioned my sexuality, including my own parents. At some point, they even tried to breach the subject.
It was pretty painful: you could just hear they didn't even want to consider it. That they hated even the possibility of it.
But the fact is, I think I'm too much of a heterosexual romantic at heart, and my upbringing in the Middle-East makes it really difficult for me to have anything not serious with a guy. Or not related to alcohol or clubs *shrugs*. My brother played with dolls, though. And was growing to be left-handed. My parents kind of straightened him out (although I voiced my disapproval really really loudly :P): they made him hold pencils in his right hand and kept correcting him again and again for more than three years, and took away all dolls and pink things. And yelled at my sister and I for being to girly around him :P.
My point is, what your friends are doing is admirable: I mean, my parents prided themselves on being open, but really, it is one of their nightmares to have a child turn out gay: my bro gave them a fright, and while I've always been quiet and studious,they're now starting to get worried about me and the non-existence of potential boyfriends (although I'm desperately heterosexual. I've never even been unsure, and how I've wanted to be: it might have explained the no-boyfriends... Ah bah. My shyness gets the better of me, obviously). Oooops... I think I took up half your comment space, and you don't even know me. Sorry, I just... Your friends' kid is so damn lucky for his parents!
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*rambles on*
Date: 2007-03-22 01:43 am (UTC)On the other hand, I still haven't had a boyfriend (I'm a girl and twenty). I just moved to London a year ago, and I do feel like an alien (almost everyone has already slept with someone): most people here have questioned my sexuality, including my own parents. At some point, they even tried to breach the subject.
It was pretty painful: you could just hear they didn't even want to consider it. That they hated even the possibility of it.
But the fact is, I think I'm too much of a heterosexual romantic at heart, and my upbringing in the Middle-East makes it really difficult for me to have anything not serious with a guy. Or not related to alcohol or clubs *shrugs*. My brother played with dolls, though. And was growing to be left-handed. My parents kind of straightened him out (although I voiced my disapproval really really loudly :P): they made him hold pencils in his right hand and kept correcting him again and again for more than three years, and took away all dolls and pink things. And yelled at my sister and I for being to girly around him :P.
My point is, what your friends are doing is admirable: I mean, my parents prided themselves on being open, but really, it is one of their nightmares to have a child turn out gay: my bro gave them a fright, and while I've always been quiet and studious,they're now starting to get worried about me and the non-existence of potential boyfriends (although I'm desperately heterosexual. I've never even been unsure, and how I've wanted to be: it might have explained the no-boyfriends... Ah bah. My shyness gets the better of me, obviously). Oooops... I think I took up half your comment space, and you don't even know me. Sorry, I just... Your friends' kid is so damn lucky for his parents!