The child is just six years old, he isn’t anything but a little boy exploring and experiencing the world; identifying and understanding what it means to be a boy or a girl is a process. As the child develops an understanding of the different roles of male and female, he or she may at times pretend to be the opposite sex, it does not mean anything when a boy of five or six wants to be like Mommy or a little girl wants to be like Daddy. It is all part of the process of understanding who they really are. Not all children will do this, but some well, it means absolutely nothing in the long run, and is perfectly normal. The child should just be left alone, he will outgrow it, and be happy in his own skin. What is matter with these crazy people!
This phase of a child pretending to be the opposite sex will vanish very quickly, by the way. It is certainly okay for the parent to remind the child that he is a little boy if the parent is concerned, but certainly should not make a big deal out of it one way or the other, and certainly not cater to the fantasy that the child is something that he is not.
And it is very normal for other children to ridicule a child if he goes too far with his make believe that he is the opposite sex, in fact I think it is probably very healthy for that child.
“identifying and understanding what it means to be a boy or a girl is a process.”
Well, I can tell you one thing for sure....back in my childhood days (50’s) boys didn’t have to “understand” what it means to be a boy....we NATURALLY DID SO. There was a very clear line between what was masculine and what was feminine and that line was very rarely crossed. For those that crossed that line, they became queers. Girls who crossed that line became dykes.
The number one factor in this issue was HOW THEY WERE RAISED back then. Today, we can blame the parents, society and the media in the destruction of the American way of life and total social collapse.
The question is never asked: How come the queer movement seemed to explode in the early 70’s? We didn’t have much of a problem with it since the dawning of time (excluding the romans) and now it seems that everyone wants to be a sexual chameleon.
When I was just a bit older than 6, a close relative had a serious illness. So I constantly played that I was an invalid in hospital. I would lie down, and my sister would bring “medicine”, and mime giving me injections. She loved the game, and would get me so worked up, that I felt pain and nearly passed out during a “blood test.”
This is how children learn about roles in life. It is also a way for a child to address anxiety - I was worried about the illness, so I took up that role, and coped with it.
I suppose that soon we will have “transinvalids”, who have to be ill for their entire lives, after playacting as children.