Not long ago my neighbors moved away. As they were packing up the house where they had raised their two daughters, they came across puzzles, games, sports equipment and toys that they decided to get rid of. My son was the lucky recipient of most of the hand-me-downs.
One board game is about shopping at the mall. It's pink and purple and the box lid has pictures of happy, smiling girls. My son first stated that he would give it to my friend's daughter. Then he took it out (just to "make sure all the pieces were there"). He had a great time setting up all the 3D pieces on the board and reading the instructions. I mentioned that my friend's daughter was probably a bit young for the game. My son looked a little concerned. I smiled at him and said "If you want to keep it for yourself, you can. Boys can play that game, too." My son was so relieved. He liked the game but, because of the pink explosion and the girls on the cover, he felt that he shouldn't.
All it takes is a trip through a toy store to see that we're steering kids too heavily in one direction. The "girl's" aisle is stocked with pretty pink packaging and lots of princess-related items. The "boy's" aisle is heavy on action figures and trucks.
I think it's great if a girl wants to dress up as a princess or a fairy. There's nothing wrong with feeling pretty and sweet. But it's also great for girls to dress up as superheroes and firefighters, because there's certainly nothing wrong with young girls feeling powerful and capable. And I see no reason for boys to be limited to crash-em-bang-em-up toys. Boys are so much more than rough and tumble creatures. Boys should be at liberty to play with toy kitchens and take care of dolls.
From fairy wings to dump trucks, AmeriKid has many toys made in USA and they're not just for boys or just for girls... they're for KIDS.
What do you think? Do you let your kids play with toys that are primarily marketed to the other gender?
Jake, Age 3
Kalie, Age 5
7 comments:
Not only do I let them, I encourage it. There are no gender lines of difference in our house-but it's a hard, constant battle with the outside world.
It's not just toys, but clothing too. "Fancy" in boyswear is nowhere near as fun as "fancy" in girlswear.
Good point! I don't have a girl, but I find trends in girl's clothing to be disturbing. As for boy's, department stores seem to think young boys only want to wear tennis shoes, baggie jeans or khakis, and hoodie sweatshirts. It's a struggle to find clothes for kids that are appropriate.
My son used to sleep with a clothes-less abandoned doll of his older sister's, from about age 1 to 3. Tucked on one side of him was his baby, on the other side a tractor. It was the cutest thing.
I love that, Rachael. It's just perfect!
What? So I'm a bad parent now because I buy pink, feminine toys for my daughter? That's what she likes and I don't think there's any way she'd ever play with a truck.
I agree!! My daughter will be 4 next week. Last year for her birthday party she really wanted to do Cinderella. So that is what we did - princess cupcakes, Cinderella invitations, Cinderella fabric table cloth, etc. This year she said she wanted dinosaurs! =) So I was very excited for her to be "well rounded". So off we went to Party City and down the "boy aisle". She was SO excited to see all the dinosaur stuff! We got it all - dino good bags, dino invitations, dino decorations, stuff to make neat dinosaur cupcakes, and a T-Rex pinata. She also wanted the bounce house we were doing to be a pink castle... =) So we will be going all out with a dino theme and castle bounce house! I love it!
Dinosaurs and pink castle bounce house. I love it, too.
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