Boys should be boys and girls should be girls?
I read a headline in the news not too long ago about a boy being sent home from nursery because he was wearing a dress. Being a mum to twin girls, I can’t put myself in that boys mums shoes, but I agree with her views.
Where is the harm in allowing a boy to wear a dress?
Does that mean girls can’t pretend to be racing drivers or fire fighters? Refuse workers or builders?
In my opinion the world is a much more open minded and accepting place than it was even 20-30 years ago.
In writing this post it’s important for me to be honest about my own parenting ways.
I’m guilty of plying on the girls like pink and dolls thing with my twins, but that doesn’t mean I don’t let them play with cars or toy tools.
I recently took our girls to a shop with the purpose of buying them a doll each. They have dolls already, but after seeing their cousins doll whose eyes open and close they wanted one too.
Whilst in the shop, M found a big truck toy and was happily playing with it. I didn’t buy it for her, because I was there to buy them dolls, but it has got me thinking about the sorts of toys I buy them.
Our twins have a lot of toys from dolls to a toy kitchen, wooden building blocks to pull along dogs and much more. Most of their toys are either marketed at girls or are unisex, but I come to think about it, why haven’t they got a big truck toy, a tool box or workstation?
I’ve found myself automatically conforming to this boys should be boys and girls should be girls nonsense!
If I found R or M playing with a so-called boy’s toy at play group, a friend’s house or anywhere else for that matter I wouldn’t even think twice about it. I’d just let them continue to play with it.
I think going forward the way in which I buy the girls their toys will change slightly and rather than just looking for ‘girls’ toys I’ll be more aware of just buying them a toy they’ll enjoy, learn from and one that will last a while.
What do you think? Do you buy your children toys for their gender?
2 Comments
Ruth Morrison
August 12, 2014 at 11:50 am
When I was pregnant with the second of three boys, I bought my first born a cheap doll of a 'newborn' baby. My MIL was very unhappy, but my argument was that he needed to understand the impact that a new baby would have on him, and how tiny and fragile his sibling would be. This doll was then passed on to his brother, who added a tea set to the collection of 'gender inappropriate' toys, so that they could play mummies having coffee. They all loved nothing better than playing with all the new toys when visiting houses with girls stuff. Fast forward 10 years, and all of my boys are strapping, sporty little men who are comfortable in their own skins. (But I still have the photos as evidence!!!)
Tom IdeasforDads
August 12, 2014 at 7:05 pm
Our girls have all sorts of toys, eat worms and dress up as Princesses. I agree that as a parent I should not pigeon hole my kids 🙂