when you come out to children

[Jeh]

My cousins all get together on the 26th every year to celebrate Christmas. This year, my one cousin wasn't going to come - she wanted to keep her son home because she didn't want to explain to him that I was transgender. (In the past year, I've changed a lot, from hormones).

Last minute, she decided she doesn't want to lie to her kid about why they're staying home, so they come.

For the first few hours, we didn't interact much. He kind of glanced at me a few times, but to be honest, I was so afraid that his mom would be like "no, not the trans guy" that I avoided him.

But then he discovered that my sister's phone reads text messages out loud. So he took her phone, and I started texting things to it so that they would be read out loud and he would laugh. We texted back and forth for maybe 40 minutes. Then we spent 3 hours with most of the whole family playing board games.

He referred to me as "he" the whole night, consistently. He's more consistent than anyone in my family. And one of my sisters isn't accepting, and she kept calling me by my girl name. Every time she did it, or someone accidentally called me my girl name, he would correct them.

It was a stressful but interesting night. So if anyone is worried about coming out to a kid, I hope this story helps.

[supremecatoverlord]

I feel like kids are more of a clean slate when they are at a certain age, so they tend to judge less in the face of "change".

However, I am still nervous about explaining my situation to my cousins (all of them are younger on my mom's side) until I'm so unmistakably "male looking" that it has to be talked about. I look different, but enough like the old me for them not to question it much yet. I'm also too afraid of explaining the situation to them until I know their parents have adjusted to my situation, because I want to avoid being rejected by my family at all costs.

[Felix]

If it helps any, I came out to my 11 year old daughter and she cried for half a minute and then told me to change my name to Crowbar. Lol, kids aren't near as complicated as grownups.

[Mister]

Yup, kids are easy.  I came out to a 4 year old by saying I had gone to a doctor because I felt like a boy inside and wanted my outside to match.  his response- "Oh, okay.  Don't forget to take your medicine!"

[conformer]

Yeah, from my experience as well, kids don't seem to care nearly as much. A conversation with my 6 year old cousin when he saw me after I cut my hair a couple years ago:
Him: "Are you a boy or a girl?"
Me: "A boy"
Him: "I thought you were a girl."
Me: "Nope"
Him: "Oh . . okay, wanna watch me ride my dirt bike?"

[tvc15]

If it helps any, I came out to my 11 year old daughter and she cried for half a minute and then told me to change my name to Crowbar. Lol, kids aren't near as complicated as grownups.

LOL! That's hilarious.

Anyway, sounds awesome, Jeh. Glad something good came out of the situation.

[Keaira]

If it helps any, I came out to my 11 year old daughter and she cried for half a minute and then told me to change my name to Crowbar. Lol, kids aren't near as complicated as grownups.

Felix Crowbar!


"There's this guy named Felix Crowbar. He's tough as nails and 10 foot tall. They say he eats  steel bolts for breakfast, and  lifted a greyhound bus off its wheels so he could change a tire with his pinkie finger."
Now that's a manly name. ^_^


My son kind of avoids the subject. he is 9 years old and I would rather he come to me with questions and figure things out on his own time.