Actually, the PITT books are your/our legacy. They are out there in the world, to be read someday -- perhaps after we ourselves are long gone -- to testify to the truth and what we have lived through.
Male violence, and hatred of women is so entrenched in male society, which is what we live in, that ppl forget the most obvious early predictors and foundations for success are rooted in Compassion, which male societies of violence and male privilege scorn and pathologize women & children for having / showing. Your daughters survived that induction system intact.
It is Vain to try to Change others. It is a Fools Errand. Especially when the structures needed to succeed aren't yours to access.
Hold the articles and your lineage, learn to write your own Love Letters / Critiques at the end of each one. Make your piece distinct, keep it noticeable from the op. Bc, male violence was already internalized when you put your kids into public schooling, and they survived it. So, until the privilege has worn out, and the pain has settled irrevocably, they Can't and Won't allow anything else, bc that's not what internalized hatred of women & Matriarchy and compassion does / not how it works & thrives.
So say what needs saying.
Make it public.
Walk away.
Bc changing someone / anyone / everyone / even one, Isn't your Right / Responsibility - that's male patterned Coercive Control Tactics talking.
Teaching them Compassionate Observation was our responsibility, but without a Matriarchal Network or setting, without More support for Teaching, Learning & Practicing Compassionate Observation, watching "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead 1 & 2" tells that tale... No man is an island, so the saying goes.
It is not too late to teach Compassionate Observation, but the audience has shifted & grown.
Read the articles.
Respond in side notes.
Be Compassionate and Observant and let it carry you, the same way you need it to carry them, when you cannot be there for them.
You: When I saw this headline, I "felt" because I "thought" and I "needed"... I think you are probably feeling"??" because you're needing "??" and so you're "doing" in order to try to meet that need... When I read "fiddledebump" I recognize my/ your thinking as... There were "this / these" logical fallacies to deal with (self / others), but also "whattleitbe" emotions/ needs / thoughts, and I realized... I found "internal change for the better" and I had hoped that IF we'd been able to stay connected "woulda-coulda" the outcome have been. Sign-off.
Me to You: I can't change you, any more than you can change them. I can't "make you" (hear / listen / know / think / consider / learn) what you don't choose to. I can put information out there, and I can hope. I can share the tools, info, opinions, fact, research... My life's experiences... But ultimately it's still up to you to engage. I can share, I can witness, I can speak... The rest is not my path.
Put that pain robed courageous self to work building the world you wanted to give. You're needed.
Firstly, I'm so sorry for your loss and your suffering. It is hideous and unfair and I hope one day you can be there for all your grandchildren and be the safe space they will need.
But right now They are trapped in a vicious cult. They will say and believe anything to avoid the pain of accepting their beliefs as stupid and harmful because they also love your grandchild. Not that long ago the Christian cult burned women as witches and gay men as fuel. (I'm not saying Christians are a cult just to demonstrate a comparison to false beliefs in time). Chinese bound their daughters feet for generations etc. Irish Catholics sent unwed mothers to work camps and many of them and their children died (sick was almost my own MIL)
You may or may not get your family back but breaking away from a cult is slow and painful and personal.
You need to do what you can to stay sane. If that's a word doc then that's what you need but just as political refusniks in soviet Russia ended up in Siberian gulags your efforts to share your reality with cultists is sadly, Tragically won't help.
I’m sorry to read about what’s happened to you and especially your grandson. I don’t have grandchildren yet, but I can well imagine how painful it must be to be estranged from a grandchild or a daughter. As for not having access any longer to previous Pitt pieces, they should all be accessible through the substack app or website.
The problem is that some people are simply unreachable. You can try to confront them with facts, but they double down on their delusions. It takes a lot to break through. At best, we can chip away at their beliefs by asking clarifying questions that could potentially raise doubts. If they catch on to the fact that you're trying to challenge their beliefs, you'll make no progress.
You are a good grandparent! Pray for your daughters to open their eyes and see the truth and realize how much you love them. Love never fails. God bless you and your family!
So now I have to contend with the lie that I am not a real person, in addition to having to contend with the fact that society has lied to my daughter and convinced her that she needs to lie about herself and be lied to by those who know she is female, and that she needs to use chemicals and surgeries to appear male in order to have any semblance of happiness?
I'm pretty sure I'm real, my pain is real, my daughter's self-harm is real, and everything I've written on Substack is real.
In fact, what is not real is the idea of a "trans child" or even a "trans adult." There are people living as if they are the opposite sex, and people who, at a given time and for a whole host of reasons, find it painful or uncomfortable to be male or be female and/or are unhappy with the sexed aspects of their bodies. They are not a special breed of "trans people."
I wish your daughters could understand that true compassion means loving children just as they are, including masculine or feminine tendencies, characteristics, and personality traits. (If a boy is feminine, that's fine; if a girl is masculine that's fine.) What may appear on the surface loving, but is in fact cruel, is lying to children about their sex, agreeing that their bodies are wrong, and encouraging them to become less healthy and less functional through chemicals and surgeries once they are preteens or young teens. Maybe your daughters will realize that some day.
I’m real too! My pain, frustration and anger are also real. My son and daughter have told me various groups such as SEGM, Genspect, Moms for Liberty, etc, are hate groups. I have said to them that labeling something as hateful or whatever, does not make it so. I wish it wasn’t so common or so powerful to slap a label on something and have it be accepted without question.
Gays Against Groomers have been called a hate group. It is made up of people just like me (a gay man who doesn't buy into the trans B.S.). However, given the low regard that most people have for gays, I've told them that I think we need to campaign against transgenderism as individuals, not as a group.
Sorry, just reread my comment. It was poorly worded. I just fixed it. What you said makes sense but it seems like just pushing back a little makes some people reflexively call us hateful as a group or individual, sigh.
It’s good to see that the SPLC is coming under fire for their propagation of evil & lies. What a joke—to say that Stella O’Malley or Zhenya Abruzzeze are “hateful.” These are not serious people.
I just went to the SPLC web site (Southern Poverty Law Center for those who don't know) and looked over their list of "hate" groups. I was surprised to see so many individual people listed there. I'm almost surprised that they didn't list J.K. Rowling. Indeed, I was almost expecting my own name to appear there.
The problem with the SPLC is that they are a list of ultra-liberals who see all conservatives as haters. I do think there may be some truth to that, but what about people like me? I am liberal on about 85% of issues, but there is that 15% that I am conservative on (like transgenderism). Sometimes, in my own articles, I am tempted to "let it all hang out" and say what I really feel, which is that trans people strike me as weird and abnormal. I don't do that often because then I could be accused of simply being a "hater". But I don't think it's hate. I think it's reality. We seem to be living in the Age of the Freak, and it's not my fault if other people turn themselves into freaks.
People have invested so much into believing in gender ideology and having acted on that belief it’s going to be incredibly difficult if not impossible for them to accept that they were wrong and admit it. Detransitioners and desisters are the only ones who have been able to in any numbers. People like Jamie Reed have been able to come forward but people like her, and her wife too I believe, are so rare. You can see the proponents and activists digging in deeper even as they are confronted with mounting evidence of the danger and destruction of their ideology. The most unhinged of them have resorted to threats and violence and it’s going to get worse. Doctors, teachers and “therapists,” aren’t going to be allowed to slink away quietly so they are going to dig in too. And parents who have not just gone along but actually embraced this craziness are going to be the last ones to face the truth, if they ever do.
I have chosen the same path as you. I am maintaining a thread of connection with my daughters by remaining silent on all things trans. It’s not much of a connection compared to what we would have had if this ideology hadn’t captured them. But at least it leaves some hope for the future.
It's heartbreaking to see people, parents and grandparents, being caught unaware, as the trans ideology takes their children into the trans cult. Most do not have any experience with this subject to understand how and why this has suddenly taken hold of their loved ones. Perhaps the very best one can do when the issue affects children in one's family, is to become as fully informed as possible.
Research deeply. Seek out and collect the published works of those critical of gender transitions, Mia Hughes, Scott Newgent, Genspect, MaryCate Delvey, Rene Jax, Jennifer Bilek, JK Rowling, (to name only a few), and all the brave scholars and detransitioners speaking out. Dive deep into the history of transsexualism/transgenderism. Study cults. Become so well-informed on these issues, that you can confidently debate anyone.
The children being transitioned need every sane person to rally for them. While it may not be possible to get through to family members currently caught up in this madness, eventually there will be cracks in the ideology and the truth will prevail. Being fully informed will help to steady one's resolve and be there for the children when you are needed most.
You are too kind. Your daughters have been the ones losing out, but you as well. Hope they read the folder. I’ve thought of how to get my daughters to read any of these anecdotes as well. Haven’t figured a way as of yet.
Maybe you could agree to read one "pro-trans" essay of their choosing if they will agree to read one PITT essay you choose. And then you could discuss them together (or not).
No one who is secure in their own point of view, should be afraid to read anything about the opposing point of view! You could express that to your daughters if they refuse to read PITT content.
I felt actual pain when I read that you were told PITT is fake, not real parents. It reminded me when my son told me SEGM was fake. We sadly live in a world where it's hard to tell the difference between real and fake and it's only getting worse. I feel hope drain in moments like these. If educated grownups are hoodwinked, how do we expect our kids to know better???
Like this is a club we wanted to join! 😂 my daughter desisted after just a few months at age 14, but I keep commenting & writing posts here because there are few places we sane normies can talk about this insane child-mutilating cult.
This is heart-breaking. However, I want to clarify that the "lie" is that affirmation and medicalization are necessary treatments for trans children. Another potential lie is that the child is trans at all, since so many of them are following a trend or fad. A child simply doesn't have the emotional maturity (the "agency") to make the decision to medicalize him- or herself.
The response of a parent should be, "So, Danny, you think you are a girl?" And then after a long discussion about why, "Important decisions about yourself have to wait until you are an adult, and that means when you are 18 or 20. If you want to wear dresses in the house because that's what you like, you can do that -- although if you do that at school, the other children may tease you (or worse!)."
With that position in place from the parents, that buys time for the child to come to his or her senses -- although in some cases, the child may not come around. (Yes, I understand that my advice here is simplistic, but hopefully the child will settle down into waiting mode. If I am mansplaining here, I apologize. You can all tell that I have never had kids.)
Any parent who affirms the child's trans identity instead of telling the child to wait is a foolish parent, and perhaps even an abusive parent. Medicalizing your children on a whim is almost monstrous in its stupidity. Unfortunately, medical professionals are still on the "affirmative" bandwagon, so a child should never be brought to a therapist UNLESS the family is in a red state which has legislated against affirmative therapy (although courts are ruling against such laws).
Now, I need to throw in the metaphysical angle because it is what I believe. My study of near-death experiences and other metaphysical sources makes it clear that reincarnation is a reality. Sometimes, a child will have feelings and/or memories left-over from a past life as the opposite sex. Such children should absolutely not be encouraged in those feelings; what they need to do is to grow into their current life and gender. Eventually, the memories of past lives will fade. The children who are truly trans are the ones who NEEDED to be the opposite sex but which, before they were born, chose to become the wrong sex. (Human souls need to experience both sexes.) In other words, if you chose to be a male in five lives because you want to avoid the pain of childbirth and/or the second-class status of women in every society, when you get to the sixth or seventh life, there is an imperative to choose to be a female. If you then choose to be a male once again, then that sets you up to feel like you were born as the wrong sex (which, actually, you were).
All this discussion of metaphysics (which I apologize for if you follow one of the ancient religions) doesn't change the fact that there are lots of children who are simply glomming onto the idea of changing genders because it seems to be an easy way to avoid one's problems -- which it doesn't, of course. In the main, it doesn't matter what the child's reasons are for thinking it is the opposite sex. The safest course is to NOT AFFIRM, thereby giving the child the opportunity to grow out of it. If that is not the way the child feels, and if the pressure is all coming from the parents who want a "special" child, THAT is child abuse!
(In retrospect, I realize that I am definitely "mansplaining", but then, being a man [albeit a gay man] and an intellectual, that's what I do. I think that what I have to offer is the perspective that we are all immortal, and that we all have numerous lives. Some lives are sacrificed to mistakes. Once learned, the soul moves on with greater knowledge, and doesn't make that mistake again. I think that having the larger perspective that we are more than just insignificant human beings will help some of you who are dealing with this.)
I have written two Pitt essays.
Actually, the PITT books are your/our legacy. They are out there in the world, to be read someday -- perhaps after we ourselves are long gone -- to testify to the truth and what we have lived through.
Im so sorry for what you are going through. This pernicious lie seeps far and wide, ruining so much. Much love grandma
Vain.
Male violence, and hatred of women is so entrenched in male society, which is what we live in, that ppl forget the most obvious early predictors and foundations for success are rooted in Compassion, which male societies of violence and male privilege scorn and pathologize women & children for having / showing. Your daughters survived that induction system intact.
It is Vain to try to Change others. It is a Fools Errand. Especially when the structures needed to succeed aren't yours to access.
Hold the articles and your lineage, learn to write your own Love Letters / Critiques at the end of each one. Make your piece distinct, keep it noticeable from the op. Bc, male violence was already internalized when you put your kids into public schooling, and they survived it. So, until the privilege has worn out, and the pain has settled irrevocably, they Can't and Won't allow anything else, bc that's not what internalized hatred of women & Matriarchy and compassion does / not how it works & thrives.
So say what needs saying.
Make it public.
Walk away.
Bc changing someone / anyone / everyone / even one, Isn't your Right / Responsibility - that's male patterned Coercive Control Tactics talking.
Teaching them Compassionate Observation was our responsibility, but without a Matriarchal Network or setting, without More support for Teaching, Learning & Practicing Compassionate Observation, watching "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead 1 & 2" tells that tale... No man is an island, so the saying goes.
It is not too late to teach Compassionate Observation, but the audience has shifted & grown.
Read the articles.
Respond in side notes.
Be Compassionate and Observant and let it carry you, the same way you need it to carry them, when you cannot be there for them.
You: When I saw this headline, I "felt" because I "thought" and I "needed"... I think you are probably feeling"??" because you're needing "??" and so you're "doing" in order to try to meet that need... When I read "fiddledebump" I recognize my/ your thinking as... There were "this / these" logical fallacies to deal with (self / others), but also "whattleitbe" emotions/ needs / thoughts, and I realized... I found "internal change for the better" and I had hoped that IF we'd been able to stay connected "woulda-coulda" the outcome have been. Sign-off.
Me to You: I can't change you, any more than you can change them. I can't "make you" (hear / listen / know / think / consider / learn) what you don't choose to. I can put information out there, and I can hope. I can share the tools, info, opinions, fact, research... My life's experiences... But ultimately it's still up to you to engage. I can share, I can witness, I can speak... The rest is not my path.
Put that pain robed courageous self to work building the world you wanted to give. You're needed.
Firstly, I'm so sorry for your loss and your suffering. It is hideous and unfair and I hope one day you can be there for all your grandchildren and be the safe space they will need.
But right now They are trapped in a vicious cult. They will say and believe anything to avoid the pain of accepting their beliefs as stupid and harmful because they also love your grandchild. Not that long ago the Christian cult burned women as witches and gay men as fuel. (I'm not saying Christians are a cult just to demonstrate a comparison to false beliefs in time). Chinese bound their daughters feet for generations etc. Irish Catholics sent unwed mothers to work camps and many of them and their children died (sick was almost my own MIL)
You may or may not get your family back but breaking away from a cult is slow and painful and personal.
You need to do what you can to stay sane. If that's a word doc then that's what you need but just as political refusniks in soviet Russia ended up in Siberian gulags your efforts to share your reality with cultists is sadly, Tragically won't help.
I’m sorry to read about what’s happened to you and especially your grandson. I don’t have grandchildren yet, but I can well imagine how painful it must be to be estranged from a grandchild or a daughter. As for not having access any longer to previous Pitt pieces, they should all be accessible through the substack app or website.
The problem is that some people are simply unreachable. You can try to confront them with facts, but they double down on their delusions. It takes a lot to break through. At best, we can chip away at their beliefs by asking clarifying questions that could potentially raise doubts. If they catch on to the fact that you're trying to challenge their beliefs, you'll make no progress.
You are a good grandparent! Pray for your daughters to open their eyes and see the truth and realize how much you love them. Love never fails. God bless you and your family!
So now I have to contend with the lie that I am not a real person, in addition to having to contend with the fact that society has lied to my daughter and convinced her that she needs to lie about herself and be lied to by those who know she is female, and that she needs to use chemicals and surgeries to appear male in order to have any semblance of happiness?
I'm pretty sure I'm real, my pain is real, my daughter's self-harm is real, and everything I've written on Substack is real.
In fact, what is not real is the idea of a "trans child" or even a "trans adult." There are people living as if they are the opposite sex, and people who, at a given time and for a whole host of reasons, find it painful or uncomfortable to be male or be female and/or are unhappy with the sexed aspects of their bodies. They are not a special breed of "trans people."
I wish your daughters could understand that true compassion means loving children just as they are, including masculine or feminine tendencies, characteristics, and personality traits. (If a boy is feminine, that's fine; if a girl is masculine that's fine.) What may appear on the surface loving, but is in fact cruel, is lying to children about their sex, agreeing that their bodies are wrong, and encouraging them to become less healthy and less functional through chemicals and surgeries once they are preteens or young teens. Maybe your daughters will realize that some day.
Hippie, is your daughter now going in for surgeries? I hope not.
Not at this time. I hope never.
I’m real too! My pain, frustration and anger are also real. My son and daughter have told me various groups such as SEGM, Genspect, Moms for Liberty, etc, are hate groups. I have said to them that labeling something as hateful or whatever, does not make it so. I wish it wasn’t so common or so powerful to slap a label on something and have it be accepted without question.
Gays Against Groomers have been called a hate group. It is made up of people just like me (a gay man who doesn't buy into the trans B.S.). However, given the low regard that most people have for gays, I've told them that I think we need to campaign against transgenderism as individuals, not as a group.
Sorry, just reread my comment. It was poorly worded. I just fixed it. What you said makes sense but it seems like just pushing back a little makes some people reflexively call us hateful as a group or individual, sigh.
I didn't see your original comment, so I don't know what issue you raised.
It’s good to see that the SPLC is coming under fire for their propagation of evil & lies. What a joke—to say that Stella O’Malley or Zhenya Abruzzeze are “hateful.” These are not serious people.
I just went to the SPLC web site (Southern Poverty Law Center for those who don't know) and looked over their list of "hate" groups. I was surprised to see so many individual people listed there. I'm almost surprised that they didn't list J.K. Rowling. Indeed, I was almost expecting my own name to appear there.
The problem with the SPLC is that they are a list of ultra-liberals who see all conservatives as haters. I do think there may be some truth to that, but what about people like me? I am liberal on about 85% of issues, but there is that 15% that I am conservative on (like transgenderism). Sometimes, in my own articles, I am tempted to "let it all hang out" and say what I really feel, which is that trans people strike me as weird and abnormal. I don't do that often because then I could be accused of simply being a "hater". But I don't think it's hate. I think it's reality. We seem to be living in the Age of the Freak, and it's not my fault if other people turn themselves into freaks.
I'm so sorry.
It's always framed as a left/right issue. And when someone knows someone who identifies as trans, they really double down. They are unreachable.
A shareable piece by Lisa Selin Davis:
https://www.broadview.news/p/we-have-a-ken-jennings-problem
I would suggest this article by https://peachyradfem.com/p/the-real-ftm-written-in-the-fourth?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2825404&post_id=196166189&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=omica&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Thanks for sharing this anthology.
i find her substack brilliantly succinct.
I just signed up for her Substack, and I pre-ordered the anthology.
I will suggest my local library order this anthology.
great idea!
People have invested so much into believing in gender ideology and having acted on that belief it’s going to be incredibly difficult if not impossible for them to accept that they were wrong and admit it. Detransitioners and desisters are the only ones who have been able to in any numbers. People like Jamie Reed have been able to come forward but people like her, and her wife too I believe, are so rare. You can see the proponents and activists digging in deeper even as they are confronted with mounting evidence of the danger and destruction of their ideology. The most unhinged of them have resorted to threats and violence and it’s going to get worse. Doctors, teachers and “therapists,” aren’t going to be allowed to slink away quietly so they are going to dig in too. And parents who have not just gone along but actually embraced this craziness are going to be the last ones to face the truth, if they ever do.
I have chosen the same path as you. I am maintaining a thread of connection with my daughters by remaining silent on all things trans. It’s not much of a connection compared to what we would have had if this ideology hadn’t captured them. But at least it leaves some hope for the future.
It's heartbreaking to see people, parents and grandparents, being caught unaware, as the trans ideology takes their children into the trans cult. Most do not have any experience with this subject to understand how and why this has suddenly taken hold of their loved ones. Perhaps the very best one can do when the issue affects children in one's family, is to become as fully informed as possible.
Research deeply. Seek out and collect the published works of those critical of gender transitions, Mia Hughes, Scott Newgent, Genspect, MaryCate Delvey, Rene Jax, Jennifer Bilek, JK Rowling, (to name only a few), and all the brave scholars and detransitioners speaking out. Dive deep into the history of transsexualism/transgenderism. Study cults. Become so well-informed on these issues, that you can confidently debate anyone.
The children being transitioned need every sane person to rally for them. While it may not be possible to get through to family members currently caught up in this madness, eventually there will be cracks in the ideology and the truth will prevail. Being fully informed will help to steady one's resolve and be there for the children when you are needed most.
You are too kind. Your daughters have been the ones losing out, but you as well. Hope they read the folder. I’ve thought of how to get my daughters to read any of these anecdotes as well. Haven’t figured a way as of yet.
Maybe you could agree to read one "pro-trans" essay of their choosing if they will agree to read one PITT essay you choose. And then you could discuss them together (or not).
No one who is secure in their own point of view, should be afraid to read anything about the opposing point of view! You could express that to your daughters if they refuse to read PITT content.
Maybe it would get them thinking, at least.
Best wishes for you! ❤️
I felt actual pain when I read that you were told PITT is fake, not real parents. It reminded me when my son told me SEGM was fake. We sadly live in a world where it's hard to tell the difference between real and fake and it's only getting worse. I feel hope drain in moments like these. If educated grownups are hoodwinked, how do we expect our kids to know better???
Like this is a club we wanted to join! 😂 my daughter desisted after just a few months at age 14, but I keep commenting & writing posts here because there are few places we sane normies can talk about this insane child-mutilating cult.
SEGM Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine
https://segm.org/
This is heart-breaking. However, I want to clarify that the "lie" is that affirmation and medicalization are necessary treatments for trans children. Another potential lie is that the child is trans at all, since so many of them are following a trend or fad. A child simply doesn't have the emotional maturity (the "agency") to make the decision to medicalize him- or herself.
The response of a parent should be, "So, Danny, you think you are a girl?" And then after a long discussion about why, "Important decisions about yourself have to wait until you are an adult, and that means when you are 18 or 20. If you want to wear dresses in the house because that's what you like, you can do that -- although if you do that at school, the other children may tease you (or worse!)."
With that position in place from the parents, that buys time for the child to come to his or her senses -- although in some cases, the child may not come around. (Yes, I understand that my advice here is simplistic, but hopefully the child will settle down into waiting mode. If I am mansplaining here, I apologize. You can all tell that I have never had kids.)
Any parent who affirms the child's trans identity instead of telling the child to wait is a foolish parent, and perhaps even an abusive parent. Medicalizing your children on a whim is almost monstrous in its stupidity. Unfortunately, medical professionals are still on the "affirmative" bandwagon, so a child should never be brought to a therapist UNLESS the family is in a red state which has legislated against affirmative therapy (although courts are ruling against such laws).
Now, I need to throw in the metaphysical angle because it is what I believe. My study of near-death experiences and other metaphysical sources makes it clear that reincarnation is a reality. Sometimes, a child will have feelings and/or memories left-over from a past life as the opposite sex. Such children should absolutely not be encouraged in those feelings; what they need to do is to grow into their current life and gender. Eventually, the memories of past lives will fade. The children who are truly trans are the ones who NEEDED to be the opposite sex but which, before they were born, chose to become the wrong sex. (Human souls need to experience both sexes.) In other words, if you chose to be a male in five lives because you want to avoid the pain of childbirth and/or the second-class status of women in every society, when you get to the sixth or seventh life, there is an imperative to choose to be a female. If you then choose to be a male once again, then that sets you up to feel like you were born as the wrong sex (which, actually, you were).
All this discussion of metaphysics (which I apologize for if you follow one of the ancient religions) doesn't change the fact that there are lots of children who are simply glomming onto the idea of changing genders because it seems to be an easy way to avoid one's problems -- which it doesn't, of course. In the main, it doesn't matter what the child's reasons are for thinking it is the opposite sex. The safest course is to NOT AFFIRM, thereby giving the child the opportunity to grow out of it. If that is not the way the child feels, and if the pressure is all coming from the parents who want a "special" child, THAT is child abuse!
(In retrospect, I realize that I am definitely "mansplaining", but then, being a man [albeit a gay man] and an intellectual, that's what I do. I think that what I have to offer is the perspective that we are all immortal, and that we all have numerous lives. Some lives are sacrificed to mistakes. Once learned, the soul moves on with greater knowledge, and doesn't make that mistake again. I think that having the larger perspective that we are more than just insignificant human beings will help some of you who are dealing with this.)
If only they knew how much we love them.