OH geez, this is a very good answer, but also, the whole idea of a parent knowing their kid's penis in that much detail does in fact give me the reaction described in the answer. Honestly, I would feel kinda weird about buying a hand or an ear for a Christmas gift for a family member too.
LW, I have two other options to offer you:
1. Send the kid a generous gift card to the website the packer was on, that will pay for what he requested, shipping, and a little extra. If you want to be explicitly gender-affirming, add a note that says something like "To buy yourself exactly the penis you want!" or something. That way, you can both pretend you don't know the details of what they got.
2. T--talk about it with him? Like, it's possible Gentle Butch is right and this was just as excruciating for him as for you, in which case, I still vote gift card + affirming note. It could also be that your son *wants* to be more open with you about this stuff - not everyone is cringingly horrified by the very idea of families being naked together, and he might be testing out whether he can share all the details of his gender stuff with you if he needs you. If that seems like him, call him and bring it up and see what happens. And if you can afford it, offer to buy it for him as not a Christmas gift, the same way (I hope) you would just help if he needed a new arm or foot.
no subject
LW, I have two other options to offer you:
1. Send the kid a generous gift card to the website the packer was on, that will pay for what he requested, shipping, and a little extra. If you want to be explicitly gender-affirming, add a note that says something like "To buy yourself exactly the penis you want!" or something. That way, you can both pretend you don't know the details of what they got.
2. T--talk about it with him? Like, it's possible Gentle Butch is right and this was just as excruciating for him as for you, in which case, I still vote gift card + affirming note. It could also be that your son *wants* to be more open with you about this stuff - not everyone is cringingly horrified by the very idea of families being naked together, and he might be testing out whether he can share all the details of his gender stuff with you if he needs you. If that seems like him, call him and bring it up and see what happens. And if you can afford it, offer to buy it for him as not a Christmas gift, the same way (I hope) you would just help if he needed a new arm or foot.