Decorating my son’s room has been a challenge. I feel like if he was born twenty years ago it would have been so much easier. I could just decorate the room with stereotypical male things and then be done. It would be so easy for me to just stick up some dinosaur wallpaper and be done with it. Young boys love dinosaurs. He’d enjoy that wallpaper well into the double digits.
But it’s 2021 now and I can’t just assume that my son is going to enjoy the things we say that boys should enjoy. What if my son rejects social norms altogether? I think I’m not even technically supposed to call him my son anymore. What if he doesn’t want to be my son, but in fact wants to be my child or my daughter. I would love him and accept him no matter what, of course. I just have to make sure I’m not too heavy on gender norms at the beginning so that he knows he can be free to express himself. I actually feel a bit bad calling him my son at the moment because I don’t want to put pressure on him, but he is indeed my son seeing as he hasn’t told me otherwise (he can’t speak – he’s a baby).
I think it’s probably a safer bet to choose something gender-neutral like an ocean wallpaper. In the Melbourne area, there is a real trend towards being gender-neutral and not forcing gender stereotypes on people, so if I can do that by not choosing male-inspired wallpaper I should do so.
I want to create a space for my son that allows him to be whoever he wants to be. I want him to be creative and enjoy his life. I hope that by decorating his room in an inclusive way, I am helping him live out his best life when he is able to.