Hi everyone! As a mom of three kids, and a tomboy in my youth, I’ve gotten exhausted by the back and forth bickering regarding gender and toys.
Growing up, there were toys that were assumed for boys and toys assumed for girls. my parents never said, “No you can’t have that racetrack or slingshot” if I wanted one – they just bought it.
When my sons were growing up, I never said no if they wanted to do a makeover with me in their toddler years, or play with a doll. I just let them. My daughter calls herself a girl girl tomboy.
She’s a girly girl part of the time and a tomboy the rest. She loves all toys. But yet, I’m not the type of mom ranting and raving about Target needing to yank down signs that point parents to toys for girls or boys.
I recently had a comment here on the blog where a mom was disgusted because the blog post was about science toys for 7 year old boys. Why didn’t I include toys for her daughter?
Well that’s your job, lady. You make the distinction of what’s good for your daughter and if that means toys that suit most little boys, go for it!
I remember when parents fought hard to get “girl lines” of toys for things like LEGOs. Remember when LEGOs were just LEGOs and then there was suddenly a pink set for girls?
I still bought my daughter both – I didn’t care about coloring of packages or labels, and you shouldn’t either.
Stop focusing so much on genders and labels and look to your child to see what kinds of toys he or she enjoys. All the labels do is make shopping easier – easier to find what you need.
Quit wasting time demanding that Amazon remove their “Toys for girls” or “Toys for boys” sections because it’s ridiculous. It helps me shop. If I want to get my tomboy daughter a toy typically meant for boys, it helps me shop!
Likewise, maybe I want to get my nephew a doll – let me shop in the girls’ section. Calm down about it.
We keep bouncing back between wanting clarified gender specific items like toys specifically for girls – and then when it happens, we gripe about it and say we want equality.
Equality is what’s in your mind and what you’re teaching your child. It has nothing to do with a paper label on a piece of plastic.
Serve your child’s best interest and let that be enough.
Tiff 🙂