next stop... Pizza dough!

They just needed the expert to confirm that it was okay and give them some more tools for protecting their kid from getting beaten up.

Yeah, and Expert Guy had that whole reassuring "I'm the expert" calm voice thing going, and you could totally see people thinking he knows what to do, even over their own experience. And you can't help but think, what if they just happened to be on the West Coast, and to have looked up the other therapist in the phone book?

Plus, I was completely creeped by the way Expert Guy's rhetoric and methods so completely matched the freaky fundie ex-gay camps: you can't even draw pictures of girly things! You can't look at pink! You can't have girl friends! Because you're going to backslide into the Wrong Lifestyle that's tempting you... and meanwhile the kid's already figured out the closet dynamic, playing with the girls at school and then coming home and hiding it.

fucking crying again. should write up collected observations on bread baking instead.

because his head [including eyebrows] had been shaved. He was a monk for a day, along with several male relatives, to help speed his grandmother's soul to heaven. Bless bless bless.)

oh, poor flower! OTOH, I suspect that it is healthy way to help a child deal with death, if he is allowed to help the soul get to heaven.

Hey Tep, Daisy, Brenda...Next time you're in SF we're going here.

Geeesh, not gone yet.

I can see limiting clothing, like maybe telling the kid that he or she has to stick to fairly gender-neutral clothes, like jeans and plain t-shirts, but limiting what the kid can draw? For lots of kids, drawing is the best way they've got of expressing themselves.

Just tasted the bread. Yum. It's about half whole wheat, half white. And I've got two loaves, which ought to last me close to two weeks. Next time, I think I'll try 100% whole wheat. (This one also has leftover brown rice mixed in, which kind of half dissolved, giving it a bit of texture.)

his head [including eyebrows] had been shaved. He was a monk for a day, along with several male relatives, to help speed his grandmother's soul to heaven.

Oh, yes, on this -- my instinct would be to praise the hell out of how important his role was, and at the same time to offer him the most flowery and outrageous hat in the room. No idea if that's either psychologically or pedagogically right, but it seems to fit the child.

Put the second one in the freezer, Hil - maybe even slice it first. Fresh bread does not last very long, generally.

My child is a dork: [link]

A flexible one, mind. [link]

So damned cute!

Still in class. Want to go home and eat cake and open prezzies!

That child is impossibly cute.

In other depressing gender news, I'm watching a PBS report of doping of the East German women athletes. In a number of cases, the high levels of male hormones they were given permanently reshaped their bodies to look masculine, and they were never told why these strange things were happening to their bodies. Some were tormented for being "transvestites" when wearing dresses. Several of the athletes interviewed now had had a terrible time with their sexual identities, and one of the interviewees had had a sex change. They had severe physical problems from overstressing their bodies, plus when they were able to see their Stazi files, they found that they had injuries that weren't treated because treatment might have revealed the doping. It was so sad.