This paper discusses the gendering of self of a young boy who has two males as parents, from the view point of his female psychotherapist. During the 2 years of psychotherapy, the young boy was preoccupied with the need to create a kind of mother. He referred to his female caretaker as "Real Mommy" whom he loved and to his psychotherapist as "The Pretend!" mother who was not to love him, and he created a Playdough mother which he used to play a number of roles. His behavior was what he thought appropriate of a loving man who would love a woman, marry her and have his own children. In order to elaborate his constructed understanding of what a boy was supposed to be, the factors of his early heterosexual identification are described. These factors are: (1) an early "working model" of a female caretaker; (2) an early "working model" of a family consisting of his biological father and his female caretaker; (3) learning gender differences in school; (4) separation drama by the abrupt departure of the female caretaker; and (5) lack of information and confusion about his same-sex parents' relationship. (AS)