To feel less than thrilled about pink mega bloks

[TeacupTempest]

that MIL has bought for DD 1st birthday?

I love my MIL. She is a star.
I also realise that many girls love pink.


I had just hoped to avoid the pinkification of my baby for a bit longer.

Surely normal mega bloks are gender less?

[DamnBamboo]

See, I am probably being really thick here... but I don't get why it's a second version.

It's just a different colour, maybe some people want a different colour.

If people didn't want/like it, it wouldn't sell.

I have three boys and we have pink toys here.

[MrsCantSayAnything]

Look YANBU. It's a shitting nuisance having to deal with MASS pink sections for girls and BLUE for boys.

It's a stealthy way of separating the sexes into neat boxes....here is the pink aisle with dolls, pushchairs, kitchens, brooms and...oh ok...PINK building blocks just incase anyone complains there are no construction toys for girls....and here is the BLUE section for BOYS! Here we have action toys, toys for building, science and discovery...no fucking prams or babies though and no brooms you fools!

YANBU YANBU YANBU

[MrsCantSayAnything]

Damn Its because "girls are too precious and sparkly to fancy a brick or a microscope unless it's PURTY!"

Didn't you know?

[DamnBamboo]

So what it is about then?

My DSD when she was tiny loved pink. We didn't encourage it, we bought her scaletrix, train sets, remote control cars, many wooden toys of plain colours - but when she got to choose, she always chose pink.

Maybe I'm less exposed not having girls...

[noblegiraffe]

Parents don't need to pinkify their girls, society will do that for them. My 3 year old who has never been told by his parents that things are for boys or for girls has started labelling things as 'for girls' or 'for boys' depending on colour. He refused to go in a pink playhouse. He goes to pre-school and a childminder and must have picked it up there.

[Portofino]

Ha! I am 44. This morning my Belgian boss asked me to critique an online form that had been designed. There were boxes that were all in one colour to designate what our team needed to fill in. The boxes were pink. He made a right joke of asking me, vs a male colleague what we thought. I said the form looked fine. My colleague said it might look a bit bright and maybe a paler shade (of pink) would be easier on the eye. My boss was

There was nowt wrong with the form, but surely I should not have to be asked about pinkification aged 44 and in a management role? Who the feck cares what colour it is.

[DamnBamboo]

Mrs all I can say is that it's not my experience with my DSD who I've known since she was 3 and who insisted on pink for everything (vile, bright awful sickly pink) but is now heading off to Cambridge to do Maths.

I honestly just figured it was a colour and if there is a good balance (which is down to the parent) the odd shitty, gender stereotype toy wouldn't matter.

Out of curiousity, are there no pink workbenches, or blue hoovers?

[TeacupTempest]

She's not yet one so definitely does not have a pink preference (as yet)!

If she grows up to have a pink preference so be it but I don't need to drown her in it at home. (well aware a few bricks isn't surrounding her in it but it is a start...)

[TeacupTempest]

And it not really about the colour is it. It's the connotations that come with it.

[DeathMetalMum]

The pink mega blocks that dd was bought for her birthday had blue and green in too. They still build great castles. Though not quite as well as duplo.

We were asked a preference by whoever bought them out of two and went for the pink as there was a person and a horse with the set rather than blocks with funny faces printed on the side. Maybe mil prefered the special pieces in the pink bag.

[DamnBamboo]

Then you need to make your wishes clear and simply say no more pink toys.

Job done.

[Marzipanface]

YANBU. All one colour is shit.

One of the fun things about megabloks is building different colour towers.

My daughter learnt her colours from her blocks and loved separating them into different colours.

[MrsCantSayAnything]

Bamboo I just googled "Pink toy workbench" an And got this

[Portofino]

noble, you are right - and it is insidious, and us as parents also grew up under these "rules". Dd was in Next once and spotted an Angry Birls t-shirt, bright orange and in the "boys" bit. I started to speak - no, dd - then checked myself and bought it. She loves it. i don't. I can't even explain why I don't adequately. It is to do with my socialisation though.

[DamnBamboo]

What connotations? It's a block. It is a differerent coloured block.

It's not as if you have megablocks for boys and then megaplates for girls (so they can learn how to stack pink plates nicely as opposed to building a wall).

You are overeacting

[MrsCantSayAnything]

Googled Blue Toy Hoover and got This

[MrsCantSayAnything]

damn Nope. If it is "just a different coloured block" Then WHY are the PINK SETS not in the "BOYS AISLE" in the shops????

[mrskeithrichards]

But I'm talking about perfectly good gender neutral toys that were on sale 7 years ago and still are now but there's a pink version. Toys that were red, yellow etc are now still red and yellow. There's just a bubble gum pink version. Why?

What came first? A pink version of everything, making one for boys and one for girls, or girls loving pink everything?

[TeacupTempest]

I am not overreacting as you will see from the title I am merely " less than thrilled."

[Peanutbutterfingers]

Damn bamboo - if it's just to do with having a different colour they could sell a green set. Or yellow set. Or blue set. They don't. They do a 'special' pink set. For girls.

It matters. It's another thread in the binding of young girls, telling them the way they are expected to be.

It's cynical, damaging marketing.

PINK STINKS.

[DamnBamboo]

Yes mrs no pinkworkbenches I see. A few gender neutral ones but not many.

But would a pink workbench be ok, being pink and all that?

Still, at least I know there are gender neutral household stuff - I have just bought my son a hotpoint cooker and washing maching and they were not pink.

[MrsCantSayAnything]

Girls toy aisle

Boys toy aisle

Why have SEPARATE AISLES??? Why not have "toy aisle"

I'll tell you....it's partly so that we have to buy two of everything if there are more than one sex in a family and partly so that the genders don''t get above or below themselves....let the kids know early on where there place in the world is.

If you're a girl it's with hoovers and fluffy telephones...a boy....well the world is your oyster. You can have it all.

[DamnBamboo]

peanut I didn't know that they didn't.

I'm fairly sure they have blue megablocks.

As I said, I clearly am not exposed enough to this...

[MrsCantSayAnything]

NO a pink workbench would not be ok. What would be ok would be a mix of all colours and genderless toy aisle where kids could roam freely and choose what they liked....without fear of choosing the "wrong" toy.