To be disappointed in the toys aimed at girls?

[FrostedCranberries]

My DD has a birthday coming up and shopping around for something aimed at her age group (5) I'm not very impressed.

Lego for girls is all in pink, Frozen or Troll themed. Theres makeup sets full of glitter and lipstick, LOL, bakery sets, hair dressing and baby crap. These are all toys in the aisle for girls.

The boys however have a choice of logical games, exciting Lego (police, vehicles and superheroes), coding games, building blocks, maths and science kits. Everything to get them ahead academically.

Why is this ok? And why isn't anyone doing anything about this? Are people really ok with raising their daughters to look pretty and be mummy first, whilst boys get a head start in problem solving leaving the girls to fall behind further perpetuating the stereotype that females are emotional and not logical?

I wanted to get her a lego police car to add to her box of legos but I felt a bit apprehensive as I wouldn't want her to not feel like she fits in with all the other girls.

Lego did purposely create Lego Friends as a way of getting more girls into Lego - and you know what? It worked ! It has been one of their most successful themes ever. Waaaay more popular than predicted.
The most fantastic thing is because it's on exactly the same scale as Lego City/Ninjago/Star Wars etc it can be all mixed up and used together. I know many girls who love both Friends and City etc and collect both types.
I also know many male adult Lego fans who love Friends because of the colour schemes and some of the accessories.

I'm 50 now yet for years my favourite toy was The Bionic Man and all the sets that went with it.

My Mum and Dad just bought me what I wanted, gender never came into it.

You should do the same OP

@CallMeThePooPatrol Early Learning Centre used to do a 'basic' blue doll. He was called Little Luke. DS1 (16) still has his in a drawer under his bed Ds2 had the 'boy' baby Born, but that's not such a cheap basic option.

We did struggle to find a non-pink pram 10 years ago. DS was 6 and didn't want a pink one. (Despite him telling me boys were allowed pink) We ended up with a SilverCross because it was the only non-pink one we could find. Its was bloody expensive but it was what he wanted!

Just dismiss all the pink stuff if you think it's not suitable. My daughter had a lot of hand me down, so called boys toys, when she was young, all her older brothers toys, saved me a lot of money! She didn't seem to like dolls and little tea sets and girly things. My late Mum once bought her a little red plasticky pram, and she used to push it around , with a black and grey rubber shark in it under a little blanket.

You're both BU and NBU imo.
YNBU to find gendered toys rediculous and it goes both ways. My ds loves "looking after" things, sharing his dummy with his Teddy, feeding me, dh, the dogs, anything. So for Xmas we bought him a dolly. He loves it, but the comments we've had about buying a dolly for a boy have been unreal. Not to mention the fact that it's very hard to find clothes for a boy dolly (it's a boy - we got an anatomically correct one), or anything that isn't pink or sparkly. Ds is too young to know or care, so he just has pink dummies, bottles etc for his dolly, but it's so frustrating to me.

YABU though to think twice about buying a "boys set" of lego. It's hard when you want you dc to fit in, but if it's pink sparkly princesses or STEM toys, go for the latter every time. :)

The hate for lego friends annoys the shit out of me. It's just lego. It's marketed in way to make a company money. Stories to match tv shows. No one ever bangs on about ninjago/chima/monkey kid being solely aimed at boys. Or that city is always in blue boxes.

From a builders perspective, the friends theme brought in the fabulous colours and new pieces, animals etc. Some of the larger sets are lovely, sometimes complex builds which give kids ideas of how to make moving parts and use gears etc. My youngest prefers the mini dolls because they look more like real people that minifigs.

It was a breath of fresh air away from the bloody dullness of lego city with it's endless fire stations and police.

The now retired elves theme, especially the dragons, was beautiful.

In my house lego is just lego.

See I feel like some people just want to buy their kids “boys” stuff just to prove a point both my girls love lol Barbie, pink, glitter, dolls, prams etc just buy what you want but I’m glad they are separated the way they are. It just makes it easier to shop no one is saying you can’t look on the “boys” side, would you like all the men’s clothes mixed in with the women’s as well

The most fantastic thing is because it's on exactly the same scale as Lego City/Ninjago/Star Wars etc it can be all mixed up and used together

It's also why the old attempts at 'girls' targeted sets never worked. The old belville and scala sets, despite a lot of the actual lego parts being reused today, had small barbie type normal dolls that didn't fit with everything else.

@Givemeabreak88

See I feel like some people just want to buy their kids “boys” stuff just to prove a point both my girls love lol Barbie, pink, glitter, dolls, prams etc just buy what you want but I’m glad they are separated the way they are. It just makes it easier to shop no one is saying you can’t look on the “boys” side, would you like all the men’s clothes mixed in with the women’s as well

I think the point is why do there have to be boy and girl toys? I get you need it with clothes as different shapes and everything but not with toys. I love pink myself, it’s one of my favourite colours, but so is blue. My baby has toys in all colours, I just see them as toys. If someone gives her a pink sparkly toy and she loves it then great, I have nothing against that and will buy her more pink things if she wants. If someone gives her a green toy and she loves it then also great.

It’s like that to make it easier to shop? I’ve noticed a lot of the pics now show boys playing with the “girls” stuff (peppa pig being a big example) or dolls and prams showing boys pushing them. not so much Barbie or lol but I suppose most 8 year old boys would be too embarrassed 😂 that’s the reason why they don’t do it.

Just buy your child presents you think they will like and forget what bloody aisle you found them in.

At that age DD1 was very much "had to be pink and look like a unicorn had vomited it out"... DD2 was more "fuck it - dinosaurs are cooler and could eat the unicorns"

I bought them a mix of stuff - there was unicorn overload but also coding toys - but I would try to buy a neutral colour variant of something if it came in say pink and red (pink fucking red London buses for God's sake) - mainly so if I sold it on when they were done with it I wasn't narrowing my resale market. So they have a wooden Ikea toy kitchen and not a pink plastic one (better built too) and the like. They gravitate to what they like.

Bright colours and all the other colours of the spectrum do NOT mark something out as a toy for boys.

Just buy the toys you like/your child likes and job done. The way I see it there is no girls or boy toys, just toys. Some kids like pink, boys included surely their parents should have this available to them.

Just buy whatever you want to buy. You do tend to find that boys and girls gravitate to typically gendered toys anyway because of their evolutionary biological roles - and if they do that's fine. But it's equally fine for your little girl to play with other toys if she wants to.

Buy her what you think she would enjoy.

But not just to prove a point.

If she would rather play with dolls and pink Lego, let her.

They definitely should ditch the whole concept of girls and boys aisles. I don’t tend to shop in store anymore so didn’t realise they still segregated toys in this way, hugely archaic. I’ve never been a fan of pink versions of things either, it’s totally unnecessary.

One of my girls works in emergency services must be because I bought her a car for Christmas 🙄 you are being a bit silly just buy your girl something she likes go to early learning or the enterrainer they have their toys *not gendered" and you need to not froth.

While I am opposed to gender stereotyping and I think dc should play with whatever toys they enjoy, I think there is something a bit sexiat about assuming all the toys aimed at girls are less good. We have a mixture of lego types, but I've been pleasantly surprised at the type of play encouraged in lego friends (e.g. Olivia's science lab, the outdoor adventure centre) and lego elves (dragons, lava flow, moving parts).

Lego does seem to be more geared to gender than play mobile. And it irritates me that a lot of the boy stuff is more 'aggressive' (ninja's, Star Wars, etc.) the girls stuff more 'homely'. But I like Lego elves, Harry Potter, underwater explorer stuff as is more gender neutral. I wish the magazines were more neutral too. That said both my DC combine their sets to make one huge Lego town!

Teddies are teddies. How the fuck are there less for boys than girls? I wish there were.
We only have a small toy shop here and the majority are extremely pink or bright purple and sparkly, or they have bright pink bows attached to them, or the leads of the dogs are pink. Very few actual bears- we used to have tons which were brown or white. And I wouldn't mind buying them but the kids have no interest

YABU just because of your demissive attitude to 'girls' toys.
Pink is a colour. Like red, blue, purple, grey, brown.
Friends is a Lego theme, like Ninjago, City, Harry Potter, Disney, Toy story etc.
Princess dresses are dress up, like police outfits, builders, nurses, doctors etc.

If your DD likes police càrs, buy the Lego police car. If she likes planes, buy a plane. If she likes a swimming pool, buy the swimming pool. Or the ice cream van, fire station, baking competition.... There's so much to chose from.

For Christmas, my DDs got a friend's set, HArry potter, dinosaurs, Dots... All great Lego sets.

Dont tell your daughter that stuff aimed at girls is lesser than stuff aimed at boys.

You're objecting to gendered toys but buying her oink stuff from the girls' section?

Not only are YBU but you're part of the problem by buying into this crap!

@stayathomer

Teddies are teddies. How the fuck are there less for boys than girls? I wish there were. We only have a small toy shop here and the majority are extremely pink or bright purple and sparkly, or they have bright pink bows attached to them, or the leads of the dogs are pink. Very few actual bears- we used to have tons which were brown or white. And I wouldn't mind buying them but the kids have no interest

How awful, I thought teddies were just animal coloured! Who would want a bright pink bear?!

Did the OP come back? The post doesn't seem genuine, more of a statement with an agenda. I buy toys for various children and it never occurs to me that to choose by gender. I choose based on their interests and personalities. Books, stickers, Lego, sand pit, tricycle. None of it 'pink' or 'blue'. I'm not saying that toy manufacturers or stores aren't guilty of dividing them, but 100% easy to not buy into that.

Pink not oink

whatsnewpussyhat the Lego Bellville figures are quite a good size to drive the Technic vehicles !!
(Let's not talk about the horror that was Scala....)