things or speak to him, what a good girl you are, you could see him flinch withdraw. and that never wavered. reporter: when someone braupt the term transgender, mimi and joe were terrified worried about their child s future. i remember crying because i imagined her being in the playground and nobody playing with her. as shy of going through high school as she was going through high school, not having dates. i m using her, because that s what she was at the time. now it sounds odd to say her. reporter: driving home with the kids, mimi nearly had a terrible car accident. i said to myself, if this was the moment where i lost her, what would i have wanted to have done? would i have wanted to force her to be mia for that one last day? and i think at that point my mind was made up. reporter: last june, they showed jacob a video about another transgender little boy.
are seeing more and more patients at a young age. how do parents know it s not a phase? all kids experiment with gender roles and maleness and femaleness. but jender con gender conformity is different, it s consistent and insistent. reporter: what about people who think parents should be in charge kids shouldn t dictate? you ve heard this? i hear it all the time. parents do need to be in charge. but whether a kid is told i don t see you, i don t hear you, i don t love you just the way you are, that s a pretty powerful message. reporter: mimi and joe say when they listened to their son they realized there was no question about his gender. you look really handsome. are you ready for today? are you ready for school? yeah! okay. ultimately, jacob has made that choice. in his mind and heart. it s whether or not we accept it or not. accept it. that s right. i want him to know how proud i am of him, how prafbrave i believe