to be a wee bit saddened by this?

[booooooooooyhoo]

was at the final session of my introduction to homebased childcare course yesterday and the subject of acceptable behaviour came up and whether we should accept behaviour from one gender but not the other. one participant suggested that obviously you aren't going to let a boy wear dresses but we let girls. a few of us stated that it wouldn't be a problem, it's normal, children dress up. she said "well it's alright once or twice but if they were doing it all the time you would have to say something" another participant agreed with her justifying it by saying, "otherwise they'll end up doing it when they're teenagers" i was glad that it didn't seem to be the general consensus of the group but still saddened to hear that these ladies are likely to be caring for little boys and spouting this stuff.

yanbu.

At the dc's nursery they let the boys play with hair clips and do each others hair.

Oh boooyooo! Did you not know that it's infectious? What if they turn gay and then everyone else turns gay. Nobody wants to send their child to a nursery full of pornstars and gays.
Oh, an don't forget- girls can't wear dungarees because they'll end up as lesbians, which is also infectious.

I was in our school's nursery last week and there were two boys there twirling around in tutus! No one batted an eyelid .

YANBU .

I used to work in after school club, there was a little boy who loved wearing tutu's and princess dresses and play highheels and he also used to say his name was Gabrielle :o.

Was never an issue for any of us.

His dad caused so much fuss about it that one day he was heard in the cloak room asking his DS if he wanted to be a little poofter

He was 5 FFS!

Mamadiva- the dad was probably concerned that he might turn into a little poofter himself.

FFS though, when I was five I dressed up as a tiger for 6 months, they are children.
I think that's one of the best things about kids that age-so free, creative and unselfconcious. If my cm told my son off for that I'd put her right in her place.

Dressing up is a Game... it does not matter what the clothes are. Children like to try out different things - pretend to be different characters. Boys will dress up in a tutu, girls will be a knight, dragon, spaceman.

You can't stop children from learning about gender differences but that need not be at age 3. It's bad enough that girls things are PINK, boys things are GREEN/BLUE.

YANBU! If I had a boy and his chilminder spouted rubbish like that I would sack her.

My DD is nearly three and she loves boys andtheir toys...I am getting her a train set for Christmas..and a garage...what if her childminder told her she could not play with those? Or dress as a Fireman? Which she loves.

YANBU my little DS loves dressing up and will find any excuse to wear his little friends fluffy heels.

i think it was the fact that these people are actually in teh process of becoming CMers. i mean, surely that means you at least know how kids work and what they like to do?

YANBU

Reminds me of when DS was at nursery and he, along with about a dozen other children that day, wet himself. Due to the obvious shortage of resources he was changed into clean knickers instead of pants. The teacher was so apologetic when she explained. She seemed genuinely frightened that I would kick off about it.

DS liked his pink pants very much btw

when they were saying all this rubbish all i had in my head was images of my ds and his best friend putting her make-up on each other and having so much fun. i would be gutted if someone told him he couldn't do that.

reminds me of DD1 and DN dressing DS up at 2 with dress, makeup and hair clips we've also got pictures of him at about 7/8 in a dress and big floppy hat, school sent it home in his diary.

I have just chosen a single sex secondary school for dd and a 'friend' asked me if I WANTED her to be a lesbian! Obviously, all children attending single sex schools are gay.
I told her that as long as dd was happy and getting a good education I couldn't care whether she was straight, gay or bisexual.
I nearly reminded her that she came onto me once when she was drunk.[hwink]

I have a gorgeous photo of my blond ringleted DS dressed in a "damsel" outfit at nusery!

I know a GROWN MAN who "won't push a pink buggy" or let his 3 yo DS have a toy one

idiots!

Obviously the worst thing that could ever happen to a boy is that he could be free to dress the way he wanted.. Bloody idiots.

my dad unintentionally caused allsorts of problems with this recently.
They bought my DS and my niece two little toys, one was a pram and one a dogkennel. DS got the dogkennel one, but then wanted to open the pram one, my niece hadn't arrived yet so Grandad had to say no. Then thought he was really clever by saying "no, boys don't play with prams" He didn't mean that, he is as liberal as they come, he just thought he was distracting DS! Niece came and they swapped so all was good!

There are lots of photos at school of my son (4, in reception) and his best friend dressed as princesses. It is their outfit of choice, apparently. I wouldn't care if he's still doing it as a teenager, either.

He also asks for Lelli Kelly shoes each time the advert comes on. I have said no. Not because they are "for girls", but because they are expensive and hideous.

Um, TBH, it might be OK for little ones, and when by eldest was young he used to push the little buggies at playgroup and that, but at 10 and 7 I wouldn't let them play out with make up on wearing tutus. Flame if you want but I just wouldn't.

Why not spikeycow? Not flaming, jsut curious

OMG my boys, 3 and 5, can walk in my heels better than I can, and don't get me started on lipstick!

Well, because um, they wear tracksuits and have the Nike tick shaved into their heads like their mates.
Not saying it's wrong but it just wouldn't suit round our way.

Well you might be saddened by it booooooooooyhoo, but I am horrified by it

As a childminder I would have expected the tutors to challenge this actively & I am disappointed they didn't

Ha, my DH always refused to carry the changing bag as it was too girly.

He once even said, 'people might think I'm gay'

Yes darling, that will be someone's first thought on seeing a man carrying a baby bag, accompanied by a woman and a baby.

Normally he's such a liberal soul - I think fatherhood did strange things to him!

He was also a bit suspicious when I bought DS a toy kitchen. I told him that the day he wielded a black and decker tool bench, I would buy DS one!

sniggering slightly at the idea of the gay man with the baby and the changing bag.

I'd rather my boys went out in a tutu and makeup than a tracksuit and a shaved Nike tick. I suppose that says something about my particular prejudices....

Yep, think it does. This is a class thing anyway. No debate about it.
Would you really let your 10 year old play out in a tutu with make up on? Rather than wear a tracksuit? Wow. I'm off