I believe many of you parents out there have experienced this. You have a daughter (or more than one) and you have a son. At some point, he starts idolizing his sister or his mother and acts like them to some degree. I was speaking with my cousin around Easter time and he was complaining about his little boy acting like a girl, so I watched him during our time together.

He loved dancing – not the kind of moves that we see male dancers make. He wanted to float around and prance as if he were a ballerina. He’d ask for dresses and ribbons and even went as far as to say “I am a princess!”

Understandably, my cousin was alarmed by all of this. Should he be, though? As I watched my nephew more, I noticed that behind his little princess act, the young boy was still there. Sure, he’d dance around but he couldn’t resist trying to frighten the girls with scary moves. When they would all play with Barbies, he’s be gentle with them, then all of a sudden his inner boy would come out and a head would pop off of poor Barbie, inciting cries from his siters.

I told my cousin this – some boys do go through this stage, especially if the role model in their life is a woman (or girl). There was a kid in our neighborhood who acted exactly like this when he was 5 or 6. Now? He’s the toughest guy on the block.

I don’t think you should discourage boys when they start acting like this, as it could potentially be a good thing. Will help to keep them in touch with their feminine side, but of course, you’d have to have talks that will help him distinguish gender. What do you guys think?