Why do parents do this?

Give her a chance though. You have to understand she's your mom and you're her kid. She will always love you, but for her this is all just as confusing too. She's hurt and confused.

My mom discovered myself early in life, but did the same things your mom is now. She tried to reinforce male sterotypes in me while really having no clue on how to deal with the situation. Hell, the same christmas she got me a present, but put it in a Victorias Secret bag in front of my whole family. I knew she had more things to wrap stuff in, but that was her little jab at me. That episode didn't really help things. It also didn't help that my dad was a drunk who preferred to go hunt and fish on the weekends or go out to the bar than be home a lot. He was there for me, my bro, and my sis as many times as I can remember, but it was ultimately too hard on my mom. I use that just as an example because there is always something more going on with her than you will know.

I only know all this now because, after a good long time of being mad at everyone around me, including her, I finally broke down and talked to my mom. About everything. About her marriage then. About me and my wants to seek out help and transition. I found out about all kinds of her fears at the time of discovering me the first time and why she just didn't have the understanding or resources to figure these things out herself.

Even now, in this age, with all this information, there is still not enough of it. There will never be enough of it. She will and has looked at things on her own, but it's the way she grew up and the aspirations she had for you and your siblings WAY before you were even a molecule of existence.

Parenting is not easy. They love you no matter how bad they nag. It just takes time to heal and mend things. It takes time to rewire the mind. Just don't be to hard on her. Accept her the way she is now. She will change along with you. It sounds like she cares, but shes alone in understanding it all and doesn't know how to act. Time....it's going to take a lot of it.

/r/asktransgender Thread