...but it's hard not to sometimes. Youngest is currently exhibiting a lot of character traits that have traditionally been labelled "female".
When I was young, the anti-gender-stereotyping movement was in full swing. Girls weren't to be given dolls, they were to be given books, trucks, toy medical kits. Boys were to be allowed to play with dolls and dress them. Jemima on Play school was always the builder or doctor.
The problem is, my kids just seem to naturally flow into their stereotypical gender roles. I'm not trying too hard to buck against the system, but at the same time I'm not out there buying "Baby Born" dolls so my daughter can change dirty nappies. She just seems to want to play with girlie things. For example, last Christmas we gave her a Fisher Price zoo - it had little animals and a little zookeeper in a cart. At the same time her grandparents gave her a house in the same series, complete with Mummy, Daddy and Baby. She shows little to no interest in the zoo, and just wants to play with her dolls' house.
I've got to stop buying pink clothes.
4 comments:
Our son has dolls, and he has trucks, books on trucks, trains, books on trains, construction equipment, books on construction equipment... you get the picture. He has never EVER played with the dolls. They are there ready and waiting, and he totally ignores them. Boys and girls are different. There. I have said it.
Well, as the mum of 2 boys, I can say that my eldest boy Sparky DOES like girl toys. He likes boy toys too. The last 2 days, when he hasnt been one of the umbilical bros, or a pirate , he has been a fairy (a boy one, mind you). He has also spent a lot of time recently picking flowers, dancing (today I taught him the heel toe polka which he adored) and playing cooking. We gave him a doll, and he does play with it, off and on, and at times it is very much in vogue. He also has a dollhouse, which he only occasionally plays with, but more frequently than he does his car garage of the same brand. He plays with his toy stove and tea set and other kitchen based stuff A LOT. He loves the computer - with most favoured program on that one where you colour in pretty butterflies (Charlie and Lola). He loves his trains! but often he does girly things with them.........i.e. the trains play house instead of zooming around in a train like fashion. He loves his lego - most often builds houses. He likes his cleaning toys. I provided boy and girl toys and watched what happens and basically he uses both. The only girl toys I think he would reject at the moment are ones which were very pick and frilly - he tells me that that is pretty but too pretty for him as he is a boy (I think he actually does like them, but feels he shouldn't). But then, I'm pretty girly, and Anton isnt what you would call a blokes bloke.........I think his inherited personality is showing in all this. Maybe Owl might be more stereotypical - he is certainly more adventurous.
oh by the way the house and the garage were both fisher price like your house and zoo - so the house is currently winning over the zoo and garage.........
Was it the Fisher Price "Little People" house with the pink roof? That's youngest's toy of choice. I saw a Little People garage that had a lift and spiralling road, and thought of getting it for her for Christmas. Don't know whether it would work, though...
Sounds like Sparky's got a great imaginative streak, there! :)
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