[custom_adv] Billionaire Elon Musk is now officially a parent. The 48-year-old tycoon welcomed a baby boy yesterday (May 06) with his partner, Grimes. This is Musk's sixth child. [custom_adv] Even though the baby's peculiar name has been widely talked about on the internet, ever since the birth announcement happened, there's another thing which stoked interest- which is the parenting style. [custom_adv] Elon and his girlfriend, Grime will be practising gender-neutral parenting while raising their baby. Over the recent years, the parenting style has invited a lot of attention. A lot of celebrity parents are backing the same. From Adele to Angelina Jolie, it is one of the biggest talking points parents have. In India too, the trend has picked up and a lot of parents in urban cities are embracing the change. [custom_adv] For those who don't know, gender-neutral parenting style is one where parents raise a child free from any kind of gender norms or stereotypes, i.e., letting the child be as they are without imposing any masculine or feminine pressure. However, it doesn't limit itself to any toys you give a child or the clothing. If done in the right way, experts say that it can hone a child's personality in a good way. [custom_adv] Elon Musk has flown so high, so fast, it is hard not to wonder when, and how, he will crash to earth. How could he not? Musk is so many things – inventor, entrepreneur, billionaire, space pioneer, inspiration for Iron Man's playboy superhero Tony Stark – and he has pushed the boundaries of science and business, doing what others declare impossible. At some point, surely, he will fall victim to sod's law, or gravity. [custom_adv] He is only 41, but so far Musk shows no sign of tumbling earthwards. Nasa and other clients are queuing up to use his rockets, part of the rapid commercialisation of space. His other company, electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, is powering ahead. [custom_adv] Such success would satisfy many tycoons, but for Musk they are merely means to ends: minimising climate change and colonising Mars. And not in some distant future – he wants to accomplish both within our lifetimes. [custom_adv] Musk has a reputation for being prickly but when I meet him at SpaceX, his headquarters west of Los Angeles, he is affable and chatty, cheerfully expounding on space exploration, climate change, Richard Branson and Hollywood. Oh, and what he would like written on his Martian tombstone. [custom_adv] Musk does not look the stereotypical plutocrat. He wears jeans and a T-shirt and sits behind a rather ordinary desk overlooking a car park, beyond which is Hawthorne, California's answer to Slough. He occupies the corner of a ground-floor, open-plan office that barely constitutes a cubicle. [custom_adv] The final frontier has fascinated Musk since he was a boy. Growing up in Pretoria, the son of a Canadian mother and South African father, he taught himself coding and software, mixing geek talent with business nous: he designed and sold a video game, Blastar, by the age of 12. He later studied economics and physics in Canada and the US and moved to Silicon Valley, resolving to focus on three areas: the internet, clean energy, space.
