But can't you get him something more Manly?

[RollingThunder]

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

Where do I start?

a) I don't actually feel any need to make my TWO YEAR OLD ds manly
b) How is a cooker not Manly?
c) Dear MIL, you are being so crap about DS1's SEN, please don't start being crap about DS2 as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. there are many many male chefs, a few are millionaires

2. he needs to learn to cook at some stage

3. maybe he will role play mending it / baking a teady - much more manly than cooking

4. It is a great present

The thing that really annoys me is that I don't see manlyness as something you aim for anyway, kids are who they are and all you as a parent have the power to do is make them feel bad about it!

Also frankly, his brother has AUTISM!!!! Who gives a crap about manlyness

Spat tea all over my iPad at Gordon Ramsey honey dragon hilarious picture [hgrin]

It drives me up the wall when older relatives do this. My nan thinks that DD should do ballet when she is a bit older and DS should do scouts. DD will be doing karate like DS as it is actually useful unlike a girl doing ballet purely because she is a girl and apparently karate is not something that girls do?

DD is getting a mini hotpoint washing machine, cooker and dishwasher set for Christmas because I know she will love it, I have a very strong feeling that DS is going to be engrossed in it as well which is perfectly fine. Men do dishes do they not?! (can't say the same for washing clothes but as long as I don't have to do dishes I am happy to take all responsibility for the washing).

For xmas get him a something sciencey and you've nearly got yourself a tiny Heston Blumenthal.

Or if you prefer playmobil farm + kitchen = small hugh fearnly whitingstall

When you said 'manly' in the title I thought you were talking about a present dilemma for your DH! Not a 2yo FFS.

If anyone said anything like that to me they'd be on the business end of a massive rant. It makes me sad how many times I have seen virtually identical threads in the few years I've been on MN. Thankfully though the replies are always like the ones on this thread.

I have a 3yo boy and a 5yo girl - they play with all the same stuff, be it buggies and dolls, toy food, dinosaurs, cars and trains... long may it continue.

Also ugggghhhhh at the girly Lego friends shit. Will be getting Lego for my DCs next year - proper Lego. :o

A cooker is a wonderful toy and just right for his age: he will get many, many years of fun out of that.

Just tell her what I told my MIL when she commented on me buying DS1 a buggy 'Oh but I'm hoping for a gay one' [hgrin] But then was told 'there aren't any gays in this family'. Yes well there are actually and turns out her GS in the US is gay, lives with his bf. But it's never mentioned. She is adorable by the way just homophobic for some reason?

But kitchen sets aren't manly or girly imo. She just sounds a bit bored to me?

I'm just waiting for girly trucks to appear. Her lip curls when she sees DD (2.5yr) playing with her red one. I'm obviously making her into a big butch lesbian.

DH is DH in no small part because DMIL had always had him help cook and he'd continued learning at university.

I'm a SAHM so I normally cook these days, But he'll do Christmas dinner.

Oooh what a great idea, was needing Christmas present ideas for DS1 (3yo and a bit ASD) and I think he would love a cooker and washing machine. MAYBE it might stop him button pushing on the real washing machine too!

I bet my parents would be unimpressed for the same reasons though. How silly to think men don't need to eat or have clean clothes.

My 4yo DS wanted everything pink for his last birthday. The wrapping paper, cake, balloons and so on. He loved anything to do with Dora the Explorer. I did get told by someone that I should stop 'encouraging' his love of pink things. That's what he wanted for his birthday, I didn't see an issue with it then and still don't.

This year (5th b'day) it's all Star Wars and Batman. No pink in sight.

MAYBE it might stop him button pushing on the real washing machine too!

I wouldn't bet on that.

I'd really like to think that this is just what a lot of older people think, this outmoded world view. But then, I see the swathes of pink in ELC, and the blatant gender stereotyping of toys in general, and I despair!

absolutely right to give him a cooker. and a vacuum cleaner. and a tool bench. whatever you think he'll enjoy playing with.

Ds2 is 3... Last Christmas we bought lots of wooden food for the toy shop and kitchen. He spent 2 weeks bringing the toy eggs to bed with him as he loved them so much!

This year he's asked Santa for toy butter!

Manly my arse, what's not manly enough about food fgs?!

Ninedoors we have the Ikea kitchen ('tis great) and DS2 has a pink frilly apron with matching pink frilly hat. He also pushes his brother's doll around in its pink toy pushchair. Outside. So there, OP's MIL!

Oh, and he's older than 3 2

I would love to get DS a kitchen for Xmas. It's always the first thing he gravitates towards at playgroup. I do feel a pink one would be a bit much tho, as sadly he has already decided pink is for girls does anyone know where I can get a cheapish non-plasticky non-pink one?

I have such wonderful memories of my DS getting a little tykes kitchen for Christmas when he was 2, he was so excited he could hardly breathe and it was his favourite toy for AGES! His dad (my exH now) wanted to buy him a workshop/tool bench too but he'd never seen anybody use tools so wouldn't have had a clue what to do with it.

Fuchzia I saw this one in asda the other day, would this fit the bill?

reviews.asda.com/1440-en_gb/000745355/wooden-play-kitchen-reviews/reviews.htm

bit annoying that it is listed on the website as 'girls role play' though

Sounds like MIL is projecting her own issues. Ignore her. Or alternatively, do what Honeydragon suggests - Mini Gordon Ramsey [hgrin]

My DD has a play kitchen, vast amounts of Duplo, a tool belt with plastic tools and a JCB digger. She loves them all. Should I really have said no to the tools and the digger just because she's a girl? My PIL's restored DH's old giant Tonka trucks for her as well, because she's a child and children loves toys that do stuff. So grateful they're able to see her as a person, not a gender.

DS used to take his toy buggy out on bus trips all the time (usually with a cuddly toy and a couple of trains or cars in) and I have to say he's never got any funny looks. And I'm very glad my family all think it's adorable too.

After all he's just playing at being a daddy :)

Fuchzia - the IKEA one is great, very solidly made. They have one in every room at DD's nursery, all the kids love playing with it. Good accessories too.

www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70129801/

You can buy the top section separately, if you want to.