To think that dd2 isn't a 'tomboy', just a girl that likes trains?

[BrittaPerry]

And cars, tractors, builders and climbing about?

She is 2.5 and currently climbing all over me wearing a blue monster dressing gown and a thomas t shirt. Her favourite toys all have wheels and i buy her shoes from the boys ranges, because a) she likes them to be blue or have cars/trains on and b) girls shoes fall off or break at an alarming rate.

The sheer amount o people who have commented on this is amazing. I have also heard 'well, she likes Thomas because he is friendly, not because he is a train' and every time she picks up a doll people point it out. Or they randomly point out that she likes dolls too when they see her wearing her favourite thomas t shirt, blue coat, thomas wellies and bob the builder backpack ab playing in a toy car.

She is named after a famous feminist too, so people assumme i 'make' her like these things. Until they meet dreamy dd1 drawing a picture of a princess while wearing a pink flowery dress...

Girls are allowed to just be girls that like trains, surely? She is too young to even know that she isn't meant to. She also likes to play with he kitchen and dolls, but so what?

On a side note, any ideas for finding hairclips with trains on? I think i'm going o have to make some as she won't keep hers in. It is that or chop her hair again, but she looked like boris johnson last time...

YADNBU. The people making those kinds of comments are morons.

YANBU

I was born in the early 70's and got pigeon holed as a Tom Boy, I hated it.

I still feel miffed that Santa never brought me the Meccano set I so wanted

Weird, OP, DD is a girl obviously loves cars and is named after a famous suffragette. Could you PM me the name of the famous feminist? I am incredibly nosy interested.

PM'd :-)

If your dd is named after a suffragette, i is very likely they have the same name - clearly tha name produces independently minded girls!

My DD1 (3.4) loves trains, lego/duplo, building toys, cars, dinosaurs, tractors, all sorts. She has Thomas things and a boy's dinosaur t-shirt that she chose.

She also loves butterflies, pink and plays with dolls.

It's normal. What is sad is that society pushes girls into one box and boys into another, and comments (and labels) on this sort of behavior at a young age enforce the stereotypes.

I hate gender stereotyping. Boys and girls are somewhat different, but it's a spectrum. Why not let boys and girls find their own place on that spectrum. Society needs more women engineers and more men infant teachers!

Have these been suggested?

Train Hair Clips

Great name, BrittaPerry I thoroughly approve

Right now DD is playing with my make-up. I think some people think that because she is rough and tumble and likes cars and is generally the most foolhardy bravest kid around that I have 'forced' her to be boyish. She likes cars, dinosaurs, monsters, baby dolls and make up. She is eclectic.

YANBU dd liked trains cars trucks she loved diggers adored them at that age My dad said she would 'turn queer' because she got a car and garage set for her 3rd christmas she never played with dolls but loved disney films

anyway she is now nearly 20 and at uni training to be an audio engineer

Sounds like a tomboy to me. Nothing wrong in that is there? I thought a tomboy was a girl who likes stuff normally associated with boys (i.e. trains, trucks etc)?

Well, I'm not sure if it'll help, but I was into dollies and sewing and all sorts of very 'girly' things for a long time - my big sister liked climbing trees and playing star wars, and she took the piss mercilessly.

When I was 8 or 9 I got heavily into model trains. I still loved my dolls - my sister hated them - but I got a train set for my 9th birthday and didn't look back. It was ace.
There followed years of going on trips to railway museums and a lot of scenery building and so on.
People occasionally called me a tomboy but I suppose I was quite hard to define...though we went to a railway club (me and my dad) some ofthe people didn't take me seriously. Which was unfair.

I think you are right to encourage her to be interested in everything she likes.
I grew up to lead a varied adult lifestyle of restoring old dolls and riding/fixing motorbikes...ok, I might be odd, but I don't think so.

dd is 2.9, today she has played with power rangers, fireman sam, doll and pram, kitchen & dried pasta, football in the garden, knights castle, Dora the explorer toys. Its all just toys and fun to her,the way it should be.
Although I often wonder if my dd didn't have 4 big brothers would she have played with such a range of stuff. Although I wouldn't have ever bought exceptionally girly stuff, she definitely wouldn't be swinging swords or wrestling at every oppourtunity.
But I hate that people have to label children like this, yes my dd loves the same toys as the boys but she also has a shoe obsession and loves her dresses.