There’s this crazy made up rule that girls need everything to be pink and boys need everything to be blue. It’s okay for girls to play with cars, if the car is a Barbie Ferrari. I have seen a pink child’s lawn mower. Boys clothing not only has to be blue, but also feature a dinosaur, football, or bulldozer. Boys need to like trucks (which don’t get me wrong, mine do – do I need to describe the difference between an excavator and a front end loader and a backhoe to prove how much I know about them?) But as a little tiny kid, Rush also enjoyed pushing babies around in strollers when we went to play at houses with little girls. It’s logical, as his dad has pushed him in the stroller many, many times, so he’s modeling the behavior of his strongest male role model.
I’m not the kind of crazy that makes me dress my sons in pink clothing, but I’m not buying into these strict stereotypes. Rush and Tate are finding their way to most of them on their own (just driving past a construction sight is Disney World level excitement), but they’re also allowed to branch out. Besides the train set and the garbage truck, one of the most loved and coveted toys at our house is Baby Hallie.
Because Rush likes pushing strollers and because we thought it would be a good idea to get a baby doll around the house before our actual new baby arrived, Trent and I picked out a doll and stroller for Rush last Christmas. In typical fashion, there were no boy dolls in the store and only pink strollers, which makes perfect sense because all babies are girls…? We had a brief moment on the toy aisle when we had to decide: are we the kind of parents who are afraid to buy a big pink box with a girl doll and a pink stroller for our son? We passed our own test and bought it. She was quickly christened Hallie after the beloved baby on our street and now is one of the top three fought over toys. Tate is only playing with her here because Rush was sleeping.
One of the saddest things I’ve ever heard is a family who took the pink crayon out of their son’s crayon box because they thought he was using it too much. That’s just insuring that in 20 years there will be some very wealthy therapists. My message to my sons: Be who you are, kids. Play with whatever.
#1. amen sista.
ReplyDelete#2. those photos of Tate are adorable!
#3. i never thought about how weird it is that all baby dolls are girls... that is realllly ridiculous and creepy
#4. very valid point about trent being strongest male role model and he pushes a baby in a stroller. perhaps you should write an article and send it to a few magazines. seriously.