Gender // Heteronormativity

So, I read this article.
It's about a queer mother and her difficulties of raising two children while trying to create a gender-less and open environment for them. It's a cool little article if you get the chance.
But, what I want to take out of this is my own experience.
Firstly, obviously, I was a child once and I seem to remember wearing some shade of pink usually, wearing dresses, floral and in most cases, just being a little girl. In the last few weeks as we talk about gender in Sociology, I always wonder what I would have turned out like if my childhood had been gender-less.
I guess I need to elaborate of gender first though: Gender is a socially constructed idea to basically create a hierarchy between males and females and for judgement of a human being to be passed most easily.
Really, I was socialized to play with dolls, one day be a mother, and to think of boys as a whole other species. I think about Brody and Lincoln a lot with this subject. At one point, Brody had really long hair and he liked it, and I've been thinking why didn't we just let him keep it? We kept telling him he looked like a girl but what does that even really matter? So what if he looks like a girl? We're still going to love him the same, aren't we?
Brody and Lincoln are a great example of how they're being socialized to be masculine little boys. They are told to buy cars, super heroes, and usually told, that's a girl's toy. They have bought Polly Pockets a few times and they both like playing dress-up in costumes such as, military, knights and superheroes. They do watch Sophia the First every now and then but for the most part, they watch boy shows, wear boy clothes and act like boys.
I think it would have been really interesting to see what they would have liked without that guidance of this is a boys item or this is a girls item. To just allow them to do what they want without gender.
Is it possible we all might have ended up a little bit more neutral had this been the case?

Another issue this article raises is teaching children about their options. (I'm not sure how to word that part.)
I don't remember knowing about LGBTQ-anything until around grade seven. I didn't even know people of the same gender could get married until around then, I had no idea what sexuality was and I didn't even there was anything other than being a heterosexual and I didn't even know what that meant. I am a great example of how we live in a very heteronormative society!
But at the same time, by not talking about it at all, maybe that was for the better. Because my parents never raised the question of whether it was right or wrong, I was left to assume it was just normal; It was only the media and people at school who ever said it was anything but.
When I think about Brody and Lincoln I think of the time Lincoln and I played Life and he decided to marry a boy. I didn't say anything about it and neither did Brody really.

What do I gather from all of this?
That being a parent is going to leave me with many questions.