Free Coin Value Guide

Parents keep child's gender secret

Each week the woman asks the same question about the baby with the squishy cheeks and feathery blond hair.

Witterick smiles, opens her arms wide, comments on the sunny spring day, and keeps walking.

She’s used to it. The neighbours know Witterick and her husband, David Stocker, are raising a genderless baby. But they don’t pretend to understand it.

While there’s nothing ambiguous about Storm’s genitalia, they aren’t telling anyone whether their third child is a boy or a girl.

The only people who know are Storm’s brothers, Jazz, 5, and Kio, 2, a close family friend and the two midwives who helped deliver the baby in a birthing pool at their Toronto home on New Year’s Day.

“When the baby comes out, even the people who love you the most and know you so intimately, the first question they ask is, ‘Is it a girl or a boy?’” says Witterick, bouncing Storm, dressed in a red-fleece jumper, on her lap at the kitchen table.

“If you really want to get to know someone, you don’t ask what’s between their legs,” says Stocker.

When Storm was born, the couple sent an email to friends and family: “We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now — a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place? ...).”

Their announcement was met with stony silence. Then the deluge of criticisms began. Not just about Storm, but about how they were parenting their other two children.

The grandparents were supportive, but resented explaining the gender-free baby to friends and co-workers. They worried the children would be ridiculed. Friends said they were imposing their political and ideological values on a newborn. Most of all, people said they were setting their kids up for a life of bullying in a world that can be cruel to outsiders.

Witterick and Stocker believe they are giving their children the freedom to choose who they want to be, unconstrained by social norms about males and females. Some say their choice is alienating.

In an age where helicopter parents hover nervously over their kids micromanaging their lives, and tiger moms ferociously push their progeny to get into Harvard, Stocker, 39, and Witterick, 38, believe kids can make meaningful decisions for themselves from a very early age.

“What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious,” says Stocker.

Free Money Finance: Strike It Rich with Pocket Change

Any information shared on Free Money Finance does not constitute financial advice. The Website is intended to provide general information only and does not attempt to give you advice that relates to your specific circumstances. You are advised to discuss your specific requirements with an independent financial adviser. All posts are © 2005-2011, Free Money Finance. As ludicrous as the concept sounds, there is no doubt that you have unintentionally done this numerous times without ever knowing it. The fact is, billions of coins pass through the public’s hands every day and of these coins, a small but significant percentage contain variations in design or errors that make them different than the rest. Many of these varieties are the target of avid collectors who are often willing to pay significant premiums to acquire them. Searching your pocket change can be fun and profitable! It can be done alone or as a leisurely pastime with the entire family. In many ways, searching your pocket change for hidden treasures is like accepting lotto tickets in lieu of your change at the local grocer – except that you can never really “lose” by checking your change. You certainly wouldn’t accept lotto tickets without scrutinizing them to see if you’re a winner – so why bypass the possibility of a quick windfall by failing to search your pocket change? The next Lincoln cent you look at could be worth $50,000! Just two examples of error Lincoln cents that could be lurking in your pocket change right now are the 1969-S and the 1970-S “doubled dies.” Both coins were struck from imperfectly prepared dies resulting in a strongly doubled date and lettering on all the coins produced from those individual dies. Because tens-of-thousands of dies are required to produce our nation’s coinage for just one year, and because errant dies are often detected and removed from service early, it can be extremely difficult to locate any of the coins produced from an imperfect die. Both of the coins mentioned above appear to be from dies whose flaws were detected early, resulting in very short runs. Coin collecting, known as numismatics, is one of the oldest hobbies known to man. In the early days it was considered the “hobby of the rich,” and even rulers of ancient kingdoms are known to have collected coins.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance

The Official Blackbook Price Guide to World Coins 2009, 12th Edition

The Official Blackbook Price Guide to United States Coins

The Coin Collector's Survival Manual

The Rotarian