No matter how hard parents try to teach their kids to be tolerant and to feel free to express themselves, there’s a big world out there just waiting to put them in a box.
Even though society is slowly becoming more accepting of those who disregard traditional gender norms, children can still be very cruel. Which is terrible, because a child’s free spirit can be easily broken, never to return.
This spirit should be not only preserved but strengthened through a child’s formative years, not squashed by bullies and authority figures.
Daddy Files blogger Aaron Gouveia had his heartbroken recently when his middle child, Sam, was tormented by his classmates for wearing nail polish to school. The rough-and-tumble five-year old “boy’s boy,” as his father calls him, likes to have his fingernails painted by his grandmother.
And he never thought it was wrong until kindergarten.
The situation brought up a difficult parenting decision: should he tell Sam to remove his nail polish so he isn’t tormented or to keep it on and suffering being bullied?
Here’s how Gouveia brilliantly handled the situation.
Gouveia’s tweet storm received thousands of likes and retweets and even inspired a few men to show their support for Sam by painting their nails, too.