06-Oct-2019, 07:36 AM
Hi- I’m another mum of a 14 year old daughter who previously showed no signs of being unhappy as a girl. In fact, in childhood, she was a very girly girl! She changed schools at 11, just as puberty started to hit and both struggled socially and developed acne/needed braces/needed glasses etc, all of which made her very unhappy within herself. She has always enjoyed living in fantasy worlds, pretending to be different characters etc, and gets obsessive about TV shows, other pop culture.
At 11, 2 months after starting at her new school, she ran away from home. The following year she threatened suicide (was in a very toxic friendship with a “best friend”), the next year she announced she was asexual and non binary (this was two months after starting to go to the school’s LBGT group because her current friend was bi- she spent weeks asking me if it was OK for her to go because she was straight!) and now she has announced that she is not a girl; she is a boy. She is uncomfortable being called “she” and wants to bind her breasts (which I won’t allow). The school have embraced this whole heartedly.
She was seeing a psychologist last year who felt she is ASD, but my daughter doesn’t want to be formally diagnosed.
We started calling her by her chosen non binary name over the summer, but now I am wondering if this is just reinforcing and normalising all these beliefs.
At 11, 2 months after starting at her new school, she ran away from home. The following year she threatened suicide (was in a very toxic friendship with a “best friend”), the next year she announced she was asexual and non binary (this was two months after starting to go to the school’s LBGT group because her current friend was bi- she spent weeks asking me if it was OK for her to go because she was straight!) and now she has announced that she is not a girl; she is a boy. She is uncomfortable being called “she” and wants to bind her breasts (which I won’t allow). The school have embraced this whole heartedly.
She was seeing a psychologist last year who felt she is ASD, but my daughter doesn’t want to be formally diagnosed.
We started calling her by her chosen non binary name over the summer, but now I am wondering if this is just reinforcing and normalising all these beliefs.
