Watch this! Video



Since many of us here have echoed these very sentiments, I thought this video would be relevant

Personally I think the strict gender stereotypes we have in our society are extremely harmful and confusing to children. It makes the boys who wants a barbie and the girl who wants a truck feel extremely bad for wanting it and parents often will "correct" their children when they ask for such toys.

I'm sure all the male members here will agree with what this smart little girl has observed.

awww, that was awesome and adorable! Now we need somebody with a little boy to make one too!

Its weird though, my cousin raised her son in a very pc, gender neutral sort of way,and did the same with her daughter, but her little girl still only wants pretty things around her. Sparkly, shiny, lacy pretty coloured pretty things! (she doesn't watch television or go to the toy store, but somehow, she still desires this!) So in many people, its natural . I've heard of very pc parents doing the opposite, and disallowing their girls to have *any* pink or princesses, and disallowing their sons from having "boy" toys" Its wrong both ways.

editing to specify that the *extreme* is wrong both ways.

well I cant get the link going(slow broadband! )

but I agree with what you say. My bestfriend when I was a child was a boy and he got laughed at for playing my little pony with me

dont know if Im allowed post link but this was interesting

www.telegraph.co.uk/fi...exism.html

lilcutie, thats interesting! Good for them for changing that. Its just one more unnecessary little clue to kids, as to what they should want.

CrimsonEtClover wrote:

awww, that was awesome and adorable! Now we need somebody with a little boy to make one too! Its weird though, my cousin raised her son in a very pc, gender neutral sort of way,and did the same with her daughter, but her little girl still only wants pretty things around her. Sparkly, shiny, lacy pretty coloured pretty things! (she doesn't watch television or go to the toy store, but somehow, she still desires this!) So in many people, its natural . I've heard of very pc parents doing the opposite, and disallowing their girls to have *any* pink or princesses, and disallowing their sons from having "boy" toys" Its wrong both ways. editing to specify that the *extreme* is wrong both ways.

Very much agreed! Extremism, in any form, is bad. I played with mostly "girls" toys, I had a lot of stuffed animal and american girl dolls and of course, ponies! But I also have a brother and played with his toys a lot too. I have very fond memories of a certain army car and some toy dinosaurs who are still some of my favorites.

I think the biggest thing is to let your child choose anything he/she wants, and support them in that decision. If your child has absolutely no interest in a certain toy then so be it, but I think when I have children I will take them through the ENTIRE toy section and even the clothes section and let them choose.

Rhini wrote:

CrimsonEtClover wrote: awww, that was awesome and adorable! Now we need somebody with a little boy to make one too! Its weird though, my cousin raised her son in a very pc, gender neutral sort of way,and did the same with her daughter, but her little girl still only wants pretty things around her. Sparkly, shiny, lacy pretty coloured pretty things! (she doesn't watch television or go to the toy store, but somehow, she still desires this!) So in many people, its natural . I've heard of very pc parents doing the opposite, and disallowing their girls to have *any* pink or princesses, and disallowing their sons from having "boy" toys" Its wrong both ways. editing to specify that the *extreme* is wrong both ways. Very much agreed! Extremism, in any form, is bad. I played with mostly "girls" toys, I had a lot of stuffed animal and american girl dolls and of course, ponies! But I also have a brother and played with his toys a lot too. I have very fond memories of a certain army car and some toy dinosaurs who are still some of my favorites. I think the biggest thing is to let your child choose anything he/she wants, and support them in that decision. If your child has absolutely no interest in a certain toy then so be it, but I think when I have children I will take them through the ENTIRE toy section and even the clothes section and let them choose.

Couldn't have said it better. Kids should be allowed to play whatever they want. Or well....Of the toy persuassionanyway.

EPIC!

I didn't watch the video, and as I can't comment from the boy aspect since I don't have any sons, but my girls love both "girly" toys and "boy" toys. We have everything from ponies to LPS to Legos, cars, and trains. (My girls actually aren't into the whole "princess" thing, but they love their animals and horses and unicorns).

I did notice that when my oldest daughter started kindergarten (she's now in 1st grade), she became more aware of gender differences (I think because she now was in a room full of both girls AND boys), and how the boys trended towards different toys than the girls did at playtime.

Rhini wrote:

CrimsonEtClover wrote: awww, that was awesome and adorable! Now we need somebody with a little boy to make one too! Its weird though, my cousin raised her son in a very pc, gender neutral sort of way,and did the same with her daughter, but her little girl still only wants pretty things around her. Sparkly, shiny, lacy pretty coloured pretty things! (she doesn't watch television or go to the toy store, but somehow, she still desires this!) So in many people, its natural . I've heard of very pc parents doing the opposite, and disallowing their girls to have *any* pink or princesses, and disallowing their sons from having "boy" toys" Its wrong both ways. editing to specify that the *extreme* is wrong both ways. Very much agreed! Extremism, in any form, is bad. I played with mostly "girls" toys, I had a lot of stuffed animal and american girl dolls and of course, ponies! But I also have a brother and played with his toys a lot too. I have very fond memories of a certain army car and some toy dinosaurs who are still some of my favorites. I think the biggest thing is to let your child choose anything he/she wants, and support them in that decision. If your child has absolutely no interest in a certain toy then so be it, but I think when I have children I will take them through the ENTIRE toy section and even the clothes section and let them choose.

Defiantly this.
I'm so happy my parents never forced me into playing with anything, and let me pick what I liked. Eventually that ended up being Bucky 'o Hare action figures and a Red Dragon Zord instead of barbie dolls.
I did always love my little ponies, but never took to dolls for instance, or many other "girl" toys. My parents never made a problem out of it, and i never felt forced into anything, which I feel greatly contributed to a happy childhood.

I dislike parents who force their kids to play with certain toys because they "should". Whether it is girls needing pink things, and boys actions figures, or the opposite as described above. Just let the child decide what they enjoy.
I remember being in the video game section of a store once and seeing a little girl who was allowed to pick out a Wii game by her mom.
Only to have her mom rip it out of her hands and put it back, when the girl picked a realistic looking racing game. Despite the girl stating she'd played it at a friends house and loved it, mom would not be swayed.
Racing games were for boys, and her little girl should play cooking mama instead. So she grabbed that game off the shelf and went to pay.

I've never quite so much felt like strangling a person....

That's horrible. We will not have "boy toys" and "girl toys" in our house but we will likely have a heck of alot of "toys". And the first adult that tells my child that the toy they are playing with is for a different gender child will be booted out or be made VERY aware of how lacking they are in the intelligence department.

I'm not too sure of boys I know (have to ask the hubby - I think he mostly had books and games, gender neutral stuff) but I had a mix of everything - Barbie, dinkie cars

I have been raising my kids trying not to gender stereotype too much. It is really hat though. Society creeps in a lot. I was at school with my son and he had some pony biscuits. One boy said "Why have you got girls biscuits" and he replied "There is no such thing as girl biscuits, they're just biscuits". I was very proud of him.

I couldn't watch the video, but agree with what is being said here. Nothing wrong with a little girl playing dinosaurs or trucks, or for a boy to like dressing up and playing dolls.

I recently did an experience with a group of primarily boy toddlers at a childcare centre with a friend of mine simply to see what would happen, we put out a picnic rug, some plastic food, baby dolls and some wash tubs & towels to wash and dry the dolls. We made sure to use different races in the dolls, and any clothes we could find for them. Well the boys actually got more involved than the girls. We had to go get more tubs for them to bath the dolls in. Why would this activity be considered wrong to anyone? Dolls arw generally made to simulate what a parent would do with an infant. To me, a dad can also feed, bath and play with their baby. Same goes the other way, why can't a female drive a truck? No reason

I also deliberately try to convert any child, no matter what sex, into a pony fan. My sister in law laughed at me because I gave her two nephews ponys to take home with them, the boys loved them. I tried to not go too pink, simply so I didn't offend the parents, the boys I am sure couldn't have cared.

My mother discouraged me from babydolls - and my cousins, who all had babydolls and carried them everywhere, became very young mothers... just a trend I noticed! Also, most of my toys were animals, except for Rose Petal and Herself the Elf - and I have several animals and garden all day!

that kid is so cute

and she has quite a point, I remember my little cousin... when he was a toddler he enjoyed playing with ponies and girly toys as much as his action figures and toy cars, and my aunt and her sisters were at first shocked... but in the end they let him decide

I don`t see why boys shouldn't play with princesses or girls with action figures, its not like they will turn in any way; the social reprimand though is much harder on boys, if a girl plays soccer and likes toy cars the parents say "oh okay... she is a bit of a tomboy" but if a boy likes dolls...