Episode 13 - Gender Identity in Kids - Part II: Samuel and Sam

Oh hiiiiiiii. It’s been a hot, hot minute (with a wildfire portion) since our last episode. We were coasting on what was left of the summer fumes for a stretch, and now we all find ourselves in the early days of the 2021-2022 school year. With both Katie and Lee Ann sending their little ones off to school this September, we have thoughts. BUT ALSO! Katie has some BIG NEWS that she shares with us this episode, so you won’t want to miss it.

Episode 13 is a particularly awesome because it’s Part II of our discussion on gender identity. Last episode, we kicked off the conversation by talking to Anna, a mom navigating parenting her non-binary teen. In this episode, we have the great fortune of speaking to TWO people on this topic, one of whom is Anna’s kid, Sam! But, before we got into that chat, we also connected with our friend Samuel Broaden, an early education professional, who shared with us his insight on gender identity in young children. Highlights below:

Katie shares her BIG NEWS!

Both of us grumble about having no idea about what we’re doing and what it feels like to enter this totally nutters school year. No anxiety there at all.

Katie shares a low for today’s “Highs and Lows” segment. Send us yours by emailing a voice memo to [email protected], or just hitting us up on the social @raisingcascadia on all your typical platforms.

Interview 1: Samuel Broaden is an early education professional who has a ton of experience with preschool-kindergarten kiddos. His company, Honoring Childhood, and his podcast, Embracing Childhood, explore his education philosophy and topics of interest to parents and education experts. He shares with us how he approaches explorations of gender identity with his students and his experiences in the classroom. He’s a gem!

Interview 2: Sam graciously agreed to chat with us after their mom shared her experience parenting a non-binary teen last episode. Now, we get to hear Sam’s perspective on when they decided to come out, how others have supported them, and some of the unexpected experiences encountered along the way.

Normally, at this point, we move to our segment called Solicited Advice. However, we agreed that neither of us felt like we were in a headspace to give any advice at all on this particular day. But send us your advice-column-worthy questions by emailing [email protected] or by shooting us a DM on the social places you love @raisingcascadia.

We sign off convinced that all we have to do is move some laundry out of our path. Is that right? We’ll find out next episode!

Many thanks to Samuel and Sam for not only coming on to share their perspective with us, but also for endlessly allowing us to call this the Sam-Sam episode. Handy!