I don't have kids (and don't really plan on it), so I don't know what it's like to raise one. However, I am around kids, and there's this thing that people seem to do that kind of irks me (honestly, a lot of things irk me, but oh well).

It's when adults try to imply that a child's actions mean something else.

That might not make a lot of sense in writing, but let me give an example. Let's say you've got little John Doe over here, being an infant, still in diapers and everything, all these people around him looking at how adorable he is. Someone hands John a small football and they throw it, as children do with just about everything.

"JOHN'S GOING TO BE A SPORTS STAR!" Someone exclaims. "So athletic, and at such a young age!" another says. The child isn't even out of diapers and they're already pushing this ideal on John, that the child automatically is going to be majorly into sports, just because something was thrown, which is an average thing for kids to do.

This is also something that's very gendered for kids. Let's say John is a boy in this example, so people go straight to the sports, because many times a young boy is supposed to automatically be into anything sports related. If John Doe was a Jane Doe, this may not be the case, and it would just be a child throwing something (which is what it is in the first place).

However, I can look past this stuff, people just want to imagine there kids are all going to grow up to be these wonderful people and like to live vicariously through them and expect them to adhere to the gender norms that society has pushed on everyone. What REALLY bothers me is when people, for example, go, "Oh look, he's a ladies man!," when a kid interacts with a girl, young or old. It's weird. Your baby doesn't even have a concept of gender probably, they just act like that to everyone. I guess babies are probably more prone to women because they are close to their mother, so many it's an innate thing, but that would go for both male and female children, and you never hear people go, "yep, she's going to be a lesbian!" when their girl child is interacting with another girl.

I just don't like how we assume kids are already sexual in nature, or attracted to the opposite sex already. It instills this thought inside a child's head that they have to act differently around boys and girls depending on whether they are a boy or girl, because they're supposed to be attracted to one and friends with another. Children are very innocent, and I don't like the idea that little girls can't hang out with little boys because they're going to get teased about growing up and getting married to each other.

There's nothing wrong if your young boy DOES actually like sports eventually, or your young girl does find that she like dresses and dolls, I'm just suggesting that we not pressure children when it comes to these things. Don't tease kids about finding one another attractive just because they're the opposite gender, or say that a young girl can't play in the dirt because she has to be lady like. They're kids! This should be a time for them to have fun, and they can worry about the realities of life when they get older.