A mom in the military and her husband in the Navy had trouble making their arrangement work. They had to deal with a lot as the parents of three kids, two girls and a boy. When it was finally time for the parents to get married and make their family official, their two-year-old son made a request that his mother couldn’t say no to, so she let her little boy wear a dress to her wedding.

Mom wrote, “We work hard to be a strong family unit. My husband is in the Navy, and I work as a gentle sleep consultant on my own. We share care of my 6- and 7-year-old daughters with their dad, who is an important part of our family. Our 2-year-old son calls him “Grandad,” but that’s a different story.

Just before he turned two, the boy fell in love with Minnie Mouse and became obsessed with all things girly. He started to want to wear “girls’ clothes,” and he would get angry when his parents tried to dress him in more “boyish” clothes.

“His sister has a Minnie Mouse dress with red polka dots, and about eight months ago, he brought it to me and asked to wear it. I laughed and told him, “Sweaters aren’t for boys, mate.” But then I thought twice about that. How come he can’t wear it? Who is he making hurt? Who comes up with these rules, anyway?”

The boy just likes to wear pretty clothes, even though they don’t fit his gender.

“When his sisters and dad saw him, we all laughed and thought it was cute. He doesn’t know he’s a boy yet, so he doesn’t have to worry about what people expect of him. My biggest worry had nothing to do with other people. It’s just that the dress was so long that he would trip over it.”

Mom got her son a suit for their wedding so he could look like his dad. But the little boy was very angry that he had to wear something other than a dress to the wedding.

Mom told CafeMom, “When he saw his sisters’ dresses for the day, he looked so happy that I knew we would probably have to get him one too.”

The boy could choose between a suit and a dress from what his parents gave him. He fell in love with the pretty dress at first sight, so he was asked to wear a dress to the wedding.

“We didn’t want any of the kids to feel bad, so we let them tell us where we could and couldn’t go. I didn’t have any bridesmaids, so I wanted both of my girls to be ring bearers. My oldest daughter thought that was too much pressure, though, so I let her be.

Mom said, “You see, our sweet, beautiful boy is 2.” He doesn’t yet have to deal with the expectations of society or the roles of men and women. He doesn’t understand why he can’t wear what he wants, and to be honest, I couldn’t think of a good reason why he couldn’t wear a dress either. On our wedding day, the last thing we wanted was for a young child to be miserable and cry.