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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be flippin annoyed with 'The Entertainer' toy shop?

117 replies

onelittleclara · 29/01/2012 21:11

Went into a branch of this toy shop yesterday with my boys. Was walking round and I noticed that they now have the shop divided into two sections:
'boys toys' and 'girls toys'. Was so angry I dragged my children straight out. If my sons wanted a doll (which they do play with) as soon as they see it labelled a 'girls toy' they are going to reject it outright. Surely a toy is a toy? Surely they are losing a potential 50% of their customers into the bargain.
Grrrrrr.

OP posts:
rshipstuff · 29/01/2012 22:08

My daughter is 4 and she was playing 'color sparkles', a colouring game, on my phone, and she was very upset when I gave her a tractor for colouring. 'Tractors are for BOYS'. She did a fairy instead.....

onelittleclara · 29/01/2012 22:14

WorraLiberty - don't fret, we just went elsewhere, so they still got to look at lots of toys! I am not a mad feminist (apologies to all mad feminists), and the shop is not forcing boys to only go down the boy aisle, but it is proving more and more difficult to convince my children that they can play with whatever they like without someone telling them that they are somehow 'wrong'

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 29/01/2012 22:16

I think most kids are intelligent enough to understand the 'boys' 'girls' thing is just a suggestion.

However, convincing the frothing adults of this is another matter entirely.

If my Mum had dragged me out of a toyshop for that reason, I'd think she'd gone quite insane.

PocPoc · 29/01/2012 22:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

rshipstuff · 29/01/2012 22:21

JK Rowling is a Christian, as was JRR Tolkien. Rowling has said their are allegorical elements in HP www.christianpost.com/news/harry-potter-author-reveals-books-christian-allegory-her-struggling-faith-29749/.

I read through some links and the Entertainer owner said he didn't have a problem with the books, but just thought that role playing witches and wizards in the form of toys was a step too far.

SiamoNellaMerda · 29/01/2012 22:36

YABU for getting "so angry" over what is really a nothing little issue. Nobody died because of the shop layout did they? Why didn't you just let your kids wander round and look - they are presumably intelligent enough to know that they can choose whatever they wish from whatever section?

BonzoDooDah · 29/01/2012 23:08

Grrrr Sounds ruddy stupid!

And don't even get me started on PINK lego!!!!

TiggyD · 29/01/2012 23:13

They do do it at Tesco. Have a blue isle for men with beer, big TVs, razors etc, and have a pink isle for ladies with cooking and cleaning stuff in.

lovebeinganana · 29/01/2012 23:18

My local entertainer store has notice on door explaining they are closed on Sunday for religous reasons.

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 07:52

When my DD was 2 and started nursery, she was not at that time developed enough to "understand the 'boys' 'girls' thing is just a suggestion".

At 4 she has decided that anything "for girls" is rubbish and she only wants "boys" stuff. Again she is well aware of which is which due to colour coding etc.

I do not think she is this way because she is stupid but because she is very young.

By the time children are old enough to understand about marketing, the messages have already thoroughly sunk in.

AnneTwacky · 30/01/2012 10:26

Do you not what. "Girls" and "Boys" toys are segregated in Toys"r"us too, and Asda. I'm not sure why you're singling out The Entertainer.

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 30/01/2012 10:30

I'm not sure Toys R Us label it specifically "Boys' toys", do they? They have a lego aisle, a doll aisle, a bike aisle, a console game area... but no explicit comment on who should be in which area. I think.

AnneTwacky · 30/01/2012 10:31

or even know what not not what. Blush

That'll teach me not to preview

AnneTwacky · 30/01/2012 10:32

I don't know without going, but I do think a mountain is being made out of a molehill here.

oranges123 · 30/01/2012 10:52

Have those of you who think the OP is overreacting ever been into an Entertainer toy shop? In our local one, the pink Girls section contains all the dolls, stuff like Sylvanian families and all the household pretend play stuff - kitchens, ironing boards, brooms, kettles - the lot. The boys section has pretty much everything else, including all the construction sets (presumably apart from Lego Friends - I haven't been in since that was introduced this year). Arts and Crafts and Pre-school toys (which would include Duplo I suppose) aren't divided by sex, although that is a bit of an arbitrary decision since dolls etc, particularly the baby ones, would surely fall into the pre-school category just as much as anything else.

It is nonsense to suggest that boys and girl will cross the divide and pick toys from the other section - they know the whole "pink for girls"/"blue for boys" from a very early age and boys, particularly, will stick to it for fear of being thought girly. Also many adults buying for children will just head to the relevant section, not wanting to pick a "boys toy" for a girl or vice versa.

Anyway, surely it would make more sense to divide the toys by type - Kitchen and laundry/Shopping/Construction/Dolls/Action Figures/Board Games/Outdoor etc, just as they already do for some categories. That would make it a lot easier to find what you are looking for than having to guess whether a particular toy is more of a "boy" or "girl" toy in someone else's eyes.

And, yes, this applies just as much to any shop which has massive blue and pink signs up marked "BOYS TOYS" and "GIRLS TOYS"

YouOldSlag · 30/01/2012 11:02

YABU, they do this in the Asda toy aisles and also in Tesco. They also do it with boy and girls clothes too.

My DS picks up most of his "Yuk that's for girls" attitudes from school, not because Asda has a pink aisle and blue aisle. My other DS has a pink sleeping bag and a toy pushchair. So what?

ohmeohmy · 30/01/2012 11:08

new one in Welwyn Garden City, loathe it with a passion. Apart from the gender sterotyping the lighting is painfully bright. Worst Toyshop ever. Fact.

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:17

Thoroughly agree with you ohmeohmy. That's the one I was talking about swerving away from, upthread.

WorraLiberty · 30/01/2012 11:21

Have those of you who think the OP is overreacting ever been into an Entertainer toy shop?

Yes and I still think the OP is overreacting

belgo · 30/01/2012 11:22

YANBU. They have a rubbish Lego and Playmobil section, although plenty of Sylvanian families.

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:24

I'm not sure I value the views of someone who thinks toddlers are thick for not being able to shrug off messages from all quarters about what is "for them".

Smile
SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:26

Most adults succumb to advertising, don't they. At some time or another. If it didn't work they wouldn't spend billions on it.

Yet small children who succumb to this are stupid.

Righty-ho.

WorraLiberty · 30/01/2012 11:32

Who called toddlers thick?

The OP overreacted imo because she 'became so angry that she dragged her children straight out of the shop.'

Her reason being "If my sons wanted a doll (which they do play with) as soon as they see it labelled a 'girls toy' they are going to reject it outright"

Really?? So the boys (presumably) live with their Mum every day. Their Mum (presumably) encourages them to play with whatever toy they choose every day.

Yet one trip to the Entertainer means they're going to reject a toy they like because they spot a sign saying it's a girl's toy?

I think the OP should have more faith in her ability to raise open minded children and also have a little more faith in them.

She can't stick them in a bubble and keep them away from advertising, but she can explain to them that adverts aren't always right.

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:36

Here you go worra

"I think most kids are intelligent enough to understand the 'boys' 'girls' thing is just a suggestion."

Smile
SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:38

Small children tend to take these things as law.

You're not going to catch a 3yo boy in the "girls" section. Doesn't mean he is stupid. Means he is following the social rules that he is being given, as humans are supposed to.