It's not ideal obviously but to be fair there are many children raised in "normal" families who are screwed up one way or another. I cannot for the life of me see why a person would do what this one has but that's an opinion. It's not a judgement. The child will be facing issues, and one could only hope that now that the mother has changed gender that she/he is happy in themselves as that will be of the most importance. An insecure parent is bad enough but one who has no idea who they are is not the best parent regardless of what they do or don't do. I prefer it to be the way (to me) nature intends but this is a crazy world and there are good and bad people everywhere. The biggest issue here will definitely be the school peers. Children are by nature extremely prejudice even when their parents guide them not to be. I know that from experience many times having raised a total of 7 children and was one myself once too (LOL). So yeah, the upshot is, the child's personality plus the parents confidence and understanding will get them through (or not) but not without some extra and possibly unnecessary bumps and bruises.