NEW YORK — A Toronto couple’s decision to keep the gender of their 4-month-old baby a secret has touched off a sometimes nasty debate over how far parents should go in protecting young ones from society’s boy-girl biases.
Kathy Witterick, 38, and David Stocker, 39, recently landed on the front page of the Toronto Star, explaining that they hope their third child, Storm, can remain untouched by the connotations of pink versus blue, male versus female, long enough to make up his or her own mind.
The decision has online haters and supporters of the family on hyperdrive. Child development experts question the impact on the infant later in life.
“This is not a secret without consequences,” said Mike Brody, a child psychiatrist and instructor at the University of Maryland.
The couple has been overwhelmed by attention, telling The Associated Press in an e-mail Friday the idea that “the whole world must know what is between the baby’s legs is unhealthy, unsafe and voyeuristic. We know — and we’re keeping it clean, safe, healthy and private (not secret!).”
Storm’s older siblings, two on-the-record boys named Kio and Jazz, know the baby’s gender, along with a close family friend and the midwives who delivered the child.
They plan to keep the secret as long as Storm, 2-year-old Kio and 5-year-old Jazz are OK with it.
