Alright. I know I'm not the only Inuyasha-crazed mom out there. I feel okay with letting my three kids watch the anime. They've seen every episode several times due to reruns and tivo. In fact, they prefer to watch Inuyasha rather than other cartoons (which is fine with me) and have whole-heartedly accepted my Sesshoumaru obsession with strange glee (they shout out, "Mom, Fluffy's on!" whenever he's on the show--credits or otherwise).

My question stems from the current season Adult Swim is showing--which is the Band of Seven season. How do you explain Jakotsu to an eight-year-old? He looks like a female, sounds like a female, dresses like a female, but we all know he's not. And my 8-yr-old just realized that everyone on the show calls "she" a "he".

Thankfully, he went off to school before I could answer, but I know the question will come up. I'm all for tollerance and what better place to start teaching it than with a cartoon! I'd just like some advice...suggetions, if you will.

Truthfully if it was me, I would simply explain what it is really. It maybe harder for someone that young to understand the concept of guys liking guys or feminine guys, when they are probably still at the stage that girls/boys, depending on which gender they are, have cooties. But in this day and age kids are learning this stuff in school a lot sooner and if you want them to have more tolerance later in life, they are better off hearing the truth from you rather than what kids come up with now a days.

It is far better for you to explain to them the concept of gay and have them not completely understand, to which they will most likely come back to you when they have more questions, than allowing their peers to teach them about it as you have no guaranty that they will be tolerant and may end up teaching them the misconceptions rather than the facts.

And you don't really have to go that far into the explanation, with kids this young you should have heard of K.I.S.S right? Keep it simple stupid. Give them the most basic of explanations and they will probably be content until they are older and it's time to have 'the' talk. Anyways hope this helps you a bit, if not just ask and I'll be happy to help more.

That is exactly what I was thinking of doing. I suppose I just needed...back-up. Yes, we will call it back-up.

Personally, I think you should just be honest with him, tell him the basic facts and try not to let him think it's a big deal. I was in third grade when I discovered what being gay meant from some kids in my class. Even at that age the kids in my class were very clear on what they thought of it (it's weird and bad was their general idea, though I don't think they knew why). It's better he hear it from you then someone else who might not share your tolerant views.

I actually ran into a similar situation some years ago when my young nephews were watching a movie I thought was above their age group. My mother-in-law assured me they weren't paying that close attention to the movie, when one character called the other a 'fag.' One nephew looks at Grandma, and says, "What's a fag?" She does not know what to say and looks at me for help... I simply told him it was a guy who acts like a girl, that some guys like to behave that way. He said o.k., and went back to watching the movie.
As Hairann said above, keep it simple. If he wants more details, he will ask. I'd just tell him, some guys want/like to act like girls and leave it at that.

Thanks for all the good advice. I could not recall when I learned about things like sexual orientation, but I know it probably wasn't a good start b/c my mother is very...very against such things, to put it nicely. Personally, I feel that whatever rocks your boat is fine with me and I'd like to instill the same such thoughts in my children, as well. There's too much else going on in life to worry about such things.

My step-mother is a religious fanatic... I was taught that homosexuality was wrong and evil so imagine my shame when I realized I had sexual feeling toward other girls as well as guys... I wondered around in a state of mass confusion for a long time before I finally accepted the truth, bisexuality is a very real part of our world and it wasn't something I should be ashamed of, but something I should embrace.

My stepsister's son is 10 now and she taught him at a young age that sometime men like other men, or womwn like other women, and that it's okay. He's accepted that and hasn't asked much more about it. I'm sure there will come a day when she has to explain it more in depth, but for now, that's all you really have to say.