third-gender-journal

My personal perspective as an adult nonbinary individual raised with a gender I would rather not have is Don't Do It.

Being nonbinary is the same as male or female. When you raise your child as neither male or female you are still making a choice for them. Making a choice for them is inevitable, and unfortunately there's no way to be sure you're making the right choice. All you can do is make the choice that has the best chance of being right. And statistically speaking, their gender is most likely to align with their sex.

The best thing you can do is to raise them free of gender expectations, encourage them to socialize with people of all genders, give them good role models, and when they come to you about their real gender identity, believe them.

I will say, as a male-aligned non binary person born female, some things I would've appreciated was a more gender neutral or male name. If you want to be truly inclusive of other gender expressions, consider a middle name that is unisex or the opposite gender so if necessary they have a more comfortable part of their identity ready for them.