I would think that raising children to do as they wish, regardless of whether it goes against gender norms, would be a lot easier than all THIS.
The story is X: A Fabulous Child’s Story by Lois Gould (you can read it at http://tiltedworld.org/2009/07/22/boy-or-girl-x-a-fabulous-childs-story-by-lois-gould/ ). I read it in 1976 so it’s an oldie.
a) this thread has put in more thought about the implications of not telling the kid its age than the parents have.
b)that the parents should take a long hard stare in the mirror and think “am i only raising my kids like a hippy because i myself was socialized as a hippy and wasn’t allowed to explore my mainstream ways? what if my kids secretly want to be raised mainstream and i’m not providing that for them?”
they’re clearly pipelining their kids. it’s inevitable. you can raise the kid as gender neutral as you want, but don’t pretend like you’re giving it every opportunity in the world because of it. gender doesn’t limit what a person’s interested in - our limited experiences do. i can’t play hockey, baseball, basketball, football, cricket, rugby, jai alai, AND cheerlead for those teams. there isn’t enough time. and that’s only mainstream sports. what about the basejumping, parasailing, waveboarding, speulunking, mountain biking, and competitive eating circuits? clearly it’s my gender that’s holding me back from excelling in any and all of those things. oh? i can also divert my time to fashion design, website design, font design, product design, auto design, airplane design, OR video editing? but i like to act! sing? dance. i think? so what happens now? i have no guidance and i have to explore it for myself? i have to make a decision now as a 5 year old? well in that case, i’d just rather sit at home, smoke some dope, and yell about how the man is keeping me down.
c) this is child abuse. definitely more abusive than spanking. they’re essentially letting the kids raise themselves. would you leave a 5 year old at home alone? would you leave a 5 year old home alone in charge of another 5 year old? of course not. a 5 year old lacks the judgment to govern himself/herself. what a gross neglect of parental obligations! shucking away “responsibilities” under the guise of it being limiting for your child’s potential.
d) what if instead of picking the pretty princess route, their kid decided to be megaviolent and beat the other kids with sticks? what’s that? the parents would stop them? why? just because SOCIETY thinks it’s wrong to beat other kids with sticks? no? there’s a innate inner morality within all of us? oh. so this inner morality only pertains to violence? what if he wants to drink paint thinner for breakfast, or stick his penis into wall outlets? what line of parental guidance do these parents draw the line at? clearly it’s at dress and gender, but that seems fairly arbitrary doesn’t it?
Ned Flanders’ mother: “You gotta help us, Doc. We’ve tried nothin’ and we’re fresh out of ideas!” 
But seriously, I agree with your assessment entirely. It immediately struck me as a clever ploy, consciously or no, to absolve themselves of any and all responsibility for their own children. Parents are SUPPOSED to set boundaries and provide guidance for their children. If children were capable of doing it themselves, we’d just set them loose upon birth like reptiles.
Perhaps, although it may also be that culturally, women (and girls) have more freedom to decide for themselves what they like and how they want to be. Girls can like “boy stuff”, and it’s nothing abnormal, but if a boy likes “girl stuff”, now that’s a problem. I wasn’t an especially boyish boy either as a child. If my parents had been like these, perhaps I’d have even been girlish.
I figure that sooner or later, Storm will decide what gender he or she is. I mean, the whole fact that transgendered people exist means that people have a gender that is distinct (though dependent) of their physical sex and of how they were socialized. So Storm will know. Let’s just hope that his or her parents will accept his or her decision at the time.
However, the fact that the parents are not teaching their other boys how to be perceived as boys by society (when that’s what they would like to be seen as) is somewhat worrisome. Especially since, as I’ve said, being a boy is culturally more restrictive than being a girl. I’d prefer it weren’t so, but it’s not up to me or to these parents.
I do know what you’re saying, but is there any doubt in your mind that if the older son told ol’ mom and dad he wanted to play football with the catholic school league and go for riflery lessons down at the range his parents would absolutely shit a brick?
You know they would.
Heh, that about describes my brother and his wife to a “T”. They have two daughters, and with the first swore up and down that she never, never shall wear pink, or buy into all that “princess” girly stuff … well, guess what little Sarah’s favorite colour and choice of toys are …
Now, no doubt there are kids who choose different, though statistically they are the minority. Point is, as parent you don’t have, really, all that much influence (which explains also how gender-different kids can emerge from really rigid conservative families - the kid’s gonna be what s/he’s gonna be). What you can do, is not be all dissapproving about your kid’s basic nature, once expressed.
That’s not the same as imposing a wackydoodle news blackout on your kid’s sex.