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The document analysed here is the account of a miracle (attributed to Wulfstan) collected in about 1240 and describing the reactions of both parents, father and mother, on the death of a three-year-old child in Worcester, England, in c. 1220. It reveals the expression of certain emotions considered to be more masculine and others seen as more feminine. But in fact, the pain and suffering manifested by tears, lamentations and cries are widely shared by both parents, even if the father tries to hide more of his distress and to comfort his wife. Their neighbours also weep abundant tears, out of compassion. The pain is so acute that both father and mother end up distraught, “almost mad”, in a parental form of insanity that creates emotional disorder and gender confusion, since this madness virilizes the mother and feminizes the father.