Dress-Wearing 5-Year-Old Boy Banned From Church Playgroup For No Good Reason

A five-year-old has been banned from his church playgroup because he likes to wear princess dresses. The church group will not let him return unless he wears “clothes which match his gender.” His mother has no problem with it, nor do a bunch of parents who also take their children to the playgroup.  I guess his mother is going to have to explain that it’s okay for kids to have interests, as long as everyone else is totally comfortable with what those interests are. Also, it may be confusing to explain why the priest is allowed to wear gowns, but he is not.

His mother says he’s had an eye for “glitzy things” since he was two years old:

‘Romeo has about 100 dresses and high heels, too. He has to wear something pink everyday, even something like a hair clip.

‘He pretty much comes home from school, throws off his uniform, puts on a dress and starts singing.

‘His favourite film is Frozen and loves acting out the role of the princesses with his sisters.

‘He wears his dress to the supermarket and sings down the aisles, he isn’t bothered what people think. I don’t think he should be, I’m proud he is so free and comfortable with himself.

‘He took a Barbie to school the other week, I did warn him the other children might say something but he didn’t care.

This kid sounds awesome. Leave it to the church to take a perfectly confident, happy child and try to give him a complex. So he likes to wear dresses – so what? I had a pair of bright red tights I insisted on wearing every day when I was five. My mom had to hand wash them every night. I wore them with everything – even under short and sneaker socks. God forbid that happen today, when some people are horrified if your child doesn’t look like he walked off the pages of a Gap ad.

The kid is five. He likes dresses. Let him wear them. The school claims it’s “upsetting” and “confusing” to the other children. Really? Maybe those children want to wear dresses, too. Everyone needs to relax. Why is it so hard to accept that a five-year-old may be totally comfortable forming his own identity? He may be the next Alexander McQueen. Or he may just be a kid who thinks he looks good in pink tulle. His father, who is in construction, has no problem with him wearing the dress: “I don’t care if he wears the dress. He can be whatever he wants to be.”

Exactly.

(photo: Amazon)