So the kids two now. When he was a few months old, I remember there was a toy car on the floor near him. and like all small children they pick up everything in their vicinity to place into their mouths. My SIL was marveling about his strong predisposition to cars. Like weirdly gushing about it. My Mother in Law joined in on the marvelling and said something like, "You know I didn't really think that there was anything innate about boys liking cars but maybe you are right!" (referring to a conversation in which my SIL claimed that liking cars was somehow due to biology.) It was fucking weird. I rolled my eyes hard.
My SIL had my nephew circumcised and felt really guilty about it. and I had actually had conversations with my in-laws before about reasons I don''t believe we should have children circumcised. Well they had a second son a few months back and my SIL was agonizing over whether to get this one circumcised. I made my opinion known, it wasn't asked for but I thought it was important. Anyway they decided to do it again because they didn't want to hurt their son's chance with women because his penis would look weird.
My nephew goes around hitting and destroying literally everything. and not in a way that might be normal for some children. Like its pretty clear the kid is very frustrated and many of his needs are just not being met at all. His emotions are frequently invalidated, in part because he is a boy and in part because his parents don't want to deal with him. and his physical needs are often pushed to the side (they often give him a tablet just to shut him up rather than dealing with what he needs) Well anyway he is hyper destructive, likes to steal toys, is unwilling to share and he's also non-verbal (which could be for any number of reasons but I think the parenting plays a factor but it also adds to the childs frustration). and like all this shit is normal because "that's just how boys are". and then they let the kid get into situations where risk of serious injury are high and basically say, "Oh when the dad was two he broke a leg so he's doing pretty good"
All though they finally admitted that maybe some of that stuff isn''t normal. Their solution? Cutting out Red Dye 40. Obviously all their problems are solved!