I started the process yesterday to register my son for Kindergarten next year. I need to complete this within the next week or so in order to get preference at the public school of our choice. I was stumped by two questions on the registration form. The first was gender. The options are “male”, “female”, or “gender not exclusively male or female”. My son identifies entirely as a boy. Do I just select male? I feel like at some point we will need to notify the teacher that he is transgendered to be prepared for when/if the issue arises. But his gender is male so I assume that is the correct answer.

My son has been experimenting with names for a little over a year. He has one name he really identifies with but we have told him it is off the table because we have a very close relative with the same name. He keeps trying other names at preschool/daycare but changes them frequently. So far he has seriously tested out about a half dozen. We are very fortunate to be at a school that encourages him to explore his identity and accommodates the name trials. He has asked us to continue calling him by his birth name (which is rather feminine) at home.

<font face=”inherit”>The form also has a spot for preferred name. Since my child will not want to be called by his legal name at school, I feel the need to enter an alternative. But, as I discussed above, that name keeps changing. When I posed the question to him yesterday he said he wants be to enter a name he has used in the past but is one he is not currently using. I don’t feel very confident in this as that name was already tested and discarded. Does it even matter? Do I just enter what he said and then provide different </font>information<font face=”inherit”> at a later date?</font>