lingering question...
First of all, I can't believe that I left a poop story on here for so long. My apologies. Today I'm thinking about something that happened yesterday that is still lingering in my mind. The boys and I went to Toys R Us to buy a birthday present and a big boy car seat for Andrew. The later was a must. My parents are almost at the point of refusing to stuff Andrew into his tiny little infant seat anymore, so it had to be done. The boys were actually very good in the store. Campbell asked to go play with a few things and always came right back when I asked him to. Ok, so sometimes I had to ask him more than once but, come on, it's Toys R Us! As we were leaving, Campbell spotted the candy at the front of the store. He asked if he could have some and I remembered that my mom had given he and Russ each a dollar the other night and he had his in his pocket. (It had been changed to each new pair of shorts since he receive the dollar!) So I told him he could spend his dollar on some candy.
He immediately spotted the Pez dispensers and was sold on those. They had all the characters from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and he was laboring over the decision of which one to buy. Finally, he decided. "I want that one," he said, pointing to the Daisy Duck Pez dispenser. And in some sort of reflex reaction I said very quickly, "No, Campbell, those are for girls. How about choosing Donald?" He was fine with that and has LOVED his Donald Duck Pez. He has not had a second thought about it, but me, on the other hand, I've been thinking about it a lot.
Should I have let him have the Daisy one if that's what he really wanted? Clearly he didn't care that much because he put up no resistance to buying the Donald one instead. And it's funny because usually I'm pretty OK with stuff like that. For instance, his favorite show is Dora. I know she's a girl, but he loves that show, especially Boots the monkey. So I don't worry when he watches it. But then when it came time to buy big boy underwear, he asked if they had Dora and I had to explain to him that they didn't make Dora underwear, only Dora panties for girls.
Anyway, I guess I'm just wondering what everyone else thinks about this stuff. Everyone has a different take on it, and I don't really think there is a right or wrong answer to the question. I'm just looking for some other opinions here.
posted by chris anne at
1:12 PM
4 Comments:
I can't say too much considering Carter's favorite color is pink. It really doesn't bother me. I probably wouldn't have thought twice about the daisy duck pez dispenser. Now Zach may feel differently... :)
By
Mandy, at 12:45 PM
We have this discussion all the time! William's fav color is pink it kills Mark and he tries to talk him out of choosing anything pink. I figure he likes it because all his stuff is blue and red. Then when William wanted a kitchen from Santa last year, Mark thought he should have a tool bench... I could go on and on. But William loves cooking. I'm glad to hear someone else thinks about this as well.
By
Jillina, at 2:21 PM
That's a hard one.... It's almost like there should be a standard cut off age that all parents could follow. You know, at age 5, start saying, "Those are for boys and these are for girls." I don't know about all this. That's def a tough one!
By
Angie, at 9:48 PM
Uh, I got reemed today for buying Dora pull ups because they were out of Diego! I don't know either. I want to read "Bringing Up Boys" and see what old James says about this. I want Ty to be manly, but what does that really mean? The qualities that define a real man have little to do with colors and gender based toys. However, in this society, I want to encourage him to act his gender for sure! It is a hard balance!
By
Tara Petty, at 11:45 PM
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