To think that the ELC should realise that some nurses are male. And some doctors are female. And some men dance ballet. And some women engage in piracy on the high seas. Etc.

[missedith01]

"For the little princess in the family we have great feminine outfits like Butterfly Fairy, Sleeping Beauty, Ballerina and Nurse?s uniform. Why not add a medical case for that extra touch of authenticity.

The boys are catered for too, with great Doctor, Policeman & Fireman uniforms, not to mention fantastic Pirate and Knight costumes. All these can be combined with a range of accessories so your child will really look the part."

www.elc.co.uk/children%27s-dressing-up-outfits/5540,default,sc.html

Fab comments all. Have much to say but am currently pinned down under a small DPD (dear potential doctor) and have only one hand to type, drink tea and carry my cutlass (ooo-aaargh). Will post response from ELC as soon as I free myself, but just wanted to say the above and also that I'm free to snog Johnny Depp at a moment's notice should this be necessary in our fight for freedom, justice and better rum rations.

ItsGraceActually. People will come into store and either say:
"Where are your dressing up costumes"
OR
"Have you got X costume?"

The trouble is little girls will go all gooey over the fairy outfits and little boys do drag all the firefighter helmets off the shelf to try them out. Why shouldnt ELC encourage that if it sells products? They are after all trying to keep in profit. It doesnt mean that girls dont or cant wear the firefighter costumes and vice versa.

I agree about the wording in last seasons catalogue. It shouldnt be so gender stereotypical I havent got the new catalogue to hand so unfortunately I cant tell you what the new wording will be. Fingers crossed it is something more appropriate.

"For example, why not simply group toys by area - outdoors, dressing up, etc."

We do!!!
Areas are defined by:
Baby and Toddler
Action and Adventure
Let's Pretend.
Dressing Up.
Learning is Fun
Games and Puzzles
Music
Books.
Art and Creativity and
Outdoor Toys.

I have no idea if that's the same as the website or not but I know that is how our store is divided.

Yes, Zingy, but why on earth would any ELC store need to do anything other than what you do in your smaller store (and imply that wouldn't be done in a bigger store) -- put all the dressing up costumes together? If ELC starts putting all the doctor costumes on the "boys" side and all the nurse costumes on the "girls" side then it is implying that girls don't wear the firefighter costumes.

One of the reasons I liked ELC when my DC were babies was the nice bright colours -- the turquoise and lime green and purple and orange. I spent a lot of money there . But now my DCs are 5 and 2 I very rarely go in, because I know most things aimed at their age group will be pink or blue. I suppose ELC don't see me going to another shop, they just see the mothers who come in and buy/want the pink stuff.

I have to admit to buying DD3 the pink ELC kitchen just because I thought it was the less garish of the two and her bedroom is lilac and pink.

She also got a sandpit (not pink) and a Cosy Coupe (not pink), the car is red why would you need a pink version?

Having 3 girls I am done with pink altogether although in saying that DD2 is not a pink girl despite DD1's best efforts. She chose a Star Wars helmet for her bike, plays with cars and dinosaurs and her favourite dressing up is Sulley and a crocodile outfit so not all girls are Disney Princesses.

ELC used to be great when the DS's were small. Everything was in primary colours and very gender neutral. Now it's a sea of pastel vileness. The quality has dropped, too. Both of mine have outgrown it now, thankfully.

We have pink stuff in her bedroom too - have just got some Ikea trofast and got the pink plastic boxes to match. If she particualrly wanted a pink toy, I wouldn't veto it; I have no feminist agenda. I just find it a little naff, especially for kids too young to make their own choice (when presumably primary colours are better anyway??).

Oh, they dont split dressing up into different sections they have it on 2 bays. Doctores and nurses outfit are always next to each other or mixed phased.

Anyway.

I dug out new catalogue from my car boot. This is for your eyes only because this baby aint due out till august and should be kept in stockrooms away from all customers.

The dressing up pages say...

When I grow up...
and then there is a picture of a girl in a police uniform, a girl in a firefighters outfit, a boy as a doctor, a girl as a nurse (but to be fair it is a nurse dress with a cape..) a boy paramedic and a girl in a blue vets costume.

I turn the page and what do I see.

A GIRL PIRATE.

Case closed. ELC listens to complaints and changes things accordingly. Now go shop there again and pay my wages. Thank you.

ZDB, I am loving your work

Oooh they have a boy holding Baby Maddy on one page and a boy playing with the dolls house stuff a boy doig the hoovering (admittedly a girl is ironing but baby steps people) Same boy is washing up.
Alot of the things look gender stereotyped still but alot of the photos are from photo shoots that ELC has no control over. Branded things like Playmobil, DreamTown, FisherPrice, VTech etc. But everything ELC brand has both boys and girls playing with the product. So thumbs up to the new catalogue I hope when you lot see it you approve!

I brought a Happyland set for dd online recently - contains a little cottage and play people - gender neutral colours - on the box it describes the little people Mr whatever teaches geography at the local school, Mrs Whatever keeps the cottage nice and clean - I could have wept it was so utterly depressing. I am thankful that dd can not yet read. I really thought when I was a teen that the world would have moved on by the time I grew up - the status of women seems to have regressed, certainly in the media and in popular culture. Hopefully we will be able to ensure that our girls are as ambitious for themselves as we were and maybe this post-feminist nonsense will fade.

That sounds good ZBD

ELC was bought by Mothercare a couple of years ago. That's why I think we are seeing a sea of pinkness and a complete change in direction. I've noticed a real increase in the volume of licensed toys on the shelves, where as the ELC used to advertise itself as only stocking 'educational' toys. (remember the ads where an action figure and barbie-type doll weren't allowed in by the other toys?)

What makes me depressed is the lack of choice on the high street. Go to Boots - mainly ELC toys. Ditto ELC (obviously) and Mothercare. I try really hard now to shop in local toy shops and we are very lucky to have two pretty good ones in nearby towns. I alo use the internet a lot more.

I think it's more of an issue that the uniforms are completely out of date, not just in ELC. I've tried to find an authentic modern-day firefighters uniform and can't. Very confusing for the kids when they see a real life policeman in uniform (I mind for a police officer) and it doesn't look anything like the dressing up version. As for nurses - how many decades ago did they dress like that?!

If what ZDB says is true, then good on the ELC for noticing.

However, I have a slight issue with the whole idea of dressing up costumes being bought from a shop. In the sea of brown & orange that was my seventies childhood, I used to go to jumble sales to buy bright coloured discarded 60s clothes. And we'd make them fit what ever kind of costume we were trying on that day. So for a doctor's coat, we'd have taken an old work shirt from someone's Dad & made a stethoscope out of cardboard. For example. There might have been the odd child lucky enough to have a toy doctor's (fairy/nurse/batman - insert as appropriate) set but mostly we made it up for oursleves. Which I always thought was the point. My DD has a few items of 'proper' dressing up stuff, but she also has lengths of old fabric, and other odds & sods. Much more credit-crunch friendly! Rant over.

They've had a few people pointing out the issue, then...?

Will go in and buy some art and craft stuff just to keep you happy, Zingy, but am not going to buy pink plastic crap even for you, sorry.

MIL bought DS a Zack from Zingzillas cuddly toy in there a couple of weeks back, if that helps?

Bloody ZingZillas

Yes buy Art and Craft stuff that's all very nice and quite reasonable too!

The pink is rather insipid isnt it. My DS has the pink cash register, it's strange I wouldnt dream of buying something pink for DD if there was an alternative, yet it's ok for DS? lol

It looks like we're not doing the pink version of HappyLand anymore either.
Oooh we are doing this great musical buggy bar attatchment with a chunky keyboard, rain maker and cymbals in nice bright red, blue, yellow and green. Good price of £24 aswell.

John Lewis is much better, especially for toddlers/preschoolers. Lots of fab wooden toys in primary colours, and cheaper than the ELC plastic tat.

A pink globe? You're kidding, right?! Please tell me you are!

I posted my very first AIBU sort of on this topic, iirc. I was looking for kitchen toys for DS and they were all pink. Which, whatever, I don't mind if he plays with pink things of course, but it seemed a bit "the kitchen and babies are women's domain" for my liking.

OP, YANBU of course.

Alibaba - I always forget about JL.

Actually Toysrus have a good range of stuff like cooking things, tea set, toy cleaning things etc etc that is primary colours and very gender neutral. Less than half the price of ELC.
We got a few bits for DS' birthday and he loves it.

A pink globe!
My pet hate is toys that uneducate children. I remember one of my nurseries having a toy elephant that was nearly shperic ball shaped, blue, and had no sticky out bits like trunk or tusks. A child asked me what it was one day. When I told her she gave me a "Yeah, right!" look and wandered off leaving me feeling a total prat.

No, you are not BU. It drives me crazy. I'd agree with a previous poster - make your own fancy dress costumes and sod the sterotypes!

I'm sure it has a lot to do with being owned by Mothercare now. I mean, Mothercare aren't exactly promoting gender-neutral products, are they? (And it makes me mad whenever I pop in to see if there's something nice for DS to wear (there never is, I don't know why I bother), that there is about 3 times as much clothing for girls as there is for boys. I presume this is because people habitually buy more clothes for girls than for boys, which is worrying in itself, but the lack of choice pissed me off!)

A year ago, we bought DS the plastic ELC sandpit, that ubiquitious bit of tat that most pre-schoolers seem to have in the garden. They had it then in blue, or in hideous, Barbie pink. Most of my antenatal group got their DD one too, and not a single one of them got the pink because it was so OTT and horrible. At the end of the year, ELC had stacks of unsold pink ones going very cheap! I note that this year, they have issued the same sandpit in neutral primaries!

Reshape - do not start me on Mothercare boys clothing. I rant at the staff whenever I go in there because it's so depressing.

Our Mothercare is next to our Sainsbury's, and Sainsbury's until now have not stocked clothes. That is all changing next week when the new re-vamped Sainsbury's opens with a huuuge clothing section. I think Mothercare will lose 50% of it's business overnight.