Letting children explore is not the same as harm
Dr Helen Webberley on GB News: puberty blockers and profit, with Ben Leo, GB News
Letting a young child dress up, play, or say they want to be something different is a warning sign that needs to be managed. If we don't step in early, we are somehow setting them on a path they cannot come back from.
What I was trying to say there is that exploration is what childhood is for. A two-year-old who wants to be Spider-Man, or a girl, or a dinosaur, or all three at once, is doing exactly what two-year-olds are supposed to do. We do not panic when a child changes their mind about what they want for breakfast. The fear that letting children play freely will cause harm has it exactly backwards: it is the stopping, the correcting, the "you can't be that" that does the damage. Children who are free to explore come to know themselves. Children who are told their curiosity is wrong learn to hide it instead.
