At what age do children act their sex?

Question

My friends' 2.5 year old son wants to wear dresses and loves lip gloss. Now mind you he also loves Transformers. At what age do children fall into their own male/female role? At what age are those things considered not the norm?

Answer 1

Every child is different, meaning every child will start "acting their age" at different times in their life. You also have girls who are "tom-boys" they may not act "female" until their teen years.

Answer 2

my son is nearly 3 and loves dressing up in his sisters dress-up clothes and putting clips in his hair. If I am painting my nails he has to have some too! And his best friend is a little 2 year old girl and they love to sit at my daughters play vanity table and do each others hair! Its so adorable.
But he also loves playing in the mud, crashing his cars together and just generally doing all sorts of 'boy' things too!

I think once they get to about the age of 4-6 (or school age)they start to have a better awareness of their gender and what is considered socially appropriate for that gender. However if a boy has sisters he will probably still play dolls and dress ups at home with them at this age and beyond. And vice versa for girls with only brothers.
My daughter loved playing trucks and cars till she was about 3 and sort of gravitated more toward 'girly' things only after that age. But she'll still play lego and cars with her little brother now and again.

I think once you see an 8 year old boy playing dolls or wearing lipstick you'd be kinda of scratching your head but who's to really say that he can't do that?

There really isn't any set age but usually once they get to school and see what the other kids of the same gender are doing, they tend to follow suit.

Answer 3

I agree with the responses here. Your friend's son does things that are very normal for this age. It is society that puts stigmas on what a child should like or do.

My son is a very healthy normal teenager, but when he was younger he used to like to play with kitchen sets and vacuum cleaners when he was a toddler. I also had gotten him a cabbage patch doll when he was a little over a year old. My husband had a fit! But he eventually understood that is a time in a child's life when they are developing who they are as a person. How could he grow up to be a nurturing adult if he isnt' allowed to practice that as a child?

I want to make clear that he had balls, trucks, cars, trains, blocks and all the other toys boys would have; but in addition to those toys he was allowed to have the toys he "wanted" to have. I remember playing house with my brothers growing up; please allow this child to be who he wants to be at this age.

I think it is well into the primary grades before both males and females clearly take on their gender roles. I remember in the early years at my son's school that the girls were still rough housing with the boys; and the boys were still playing regularly with the girls. If I remember correctly, it was about 2nd or 3rd grades where the sexes separate (girls hating boys and vice versa). It can happen earlier or later depending on the development and maturity of the child. Until that time there is a blending and mutual sharing that depends more so on personalities than gender.

I think children when they are younger play according to what is available to them at the time. Please don't make comments or allow anyone to make comments in front of the children during the early years; it can leave the child feeling bad, as if they have done something wrong, without understanding what is really happening. If the child is at your house, and this behavior really bothers you, I would suggest having activities available for the kids to do that are gender neutral, such as coloring, building blocks, puzzles, playing with a ball or a simple game.

The stigma is less for girls at this age, but there are a lot of tomboys who shun doing girly things at this age; but they end up growing up into normal and healthy girls.

It's a fun age, I would sit back and enjoy watching how individual personalities develop.

Answer 4

Textbooks will give you a lot of different answers, but the truth is none of it matters because everyone is different.

I remember being a little boy and wanting a Ken doll sooo badly. My mother and sister sat with me in the toy store and explained why it wouldn't be a good idea for me to have it. (it gets worse, it was this Ken doll that you could cut his hair, which gave me the whole idea)

I ended up straight! I'm not a transvetite or anything (although there was that one time in college)

when you get right down to it, to a little boy it's very simple
"this dress is pretty. this is fun. this chapstick feels good on my lips. this is fun."

Soak up that innocence while its still around!

Answer 5

if he's fifteen doing these things- then I'd consider it something. But its completely "the norm" for young kids to try out the other gender roles. They still don't exactly understand the diff between a boy and a girl- other than the whole peepee tata thing.

Answer 6

You mean gender?


Gender solidifies around age four. Kids typically will "try on" the other gender like a costume or pretend play until that age. Don't be alarmed, just be sweet.

My son outgrew his early feminine tendencies, most likely, this little fellow will too.

Btw, it's okay for both genders to cook and learn to care for themselves and their possessions. That's what being a grown up is about.

Answer 7

i would say around preschool when all boys are playing cars and trucks and all the girls are playing house and dress up and when they yell out like if theyre a boy and they yell out eww girls are gross and stuff i would say they start acting like theyre sex and i shouldnt worry about the 2.5 year old it's just a face he's going through like i remeber when i was 8 and i would nail polish on and my little brother would want some he was 2 at the time i would put it on him for a couple of fingers or something and now he's 11 and he's fine but he still thinks hang out with girls is gross but like i said it's just a face he'll go through :-)))))

Answer 8

who cares if a boy does all that my nephew loved having his nails painted anddressing in his sisters clothes and all the girly things he also loved boy stuff, he spent most of his time with his mother and his sister as his daddy was always working what else is a boy gunna learn?? kids are gunna want to do what they see being done he doesnt know any different to him that is norman.

Answer 9

our society created these gender roles. it really shouldn't matter if a boy likes lip gloss or a girl likes wrestling.