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.

@lalalalands

I agree with you OP. I was looking for a toy hoover for my little boy once and 90% of the products I found were pink and had specifically girls on the packaging

I typed toy hoover into google First 20 results - 2 were pink, the rest red/green/yellow purple etc And 1 had a girl in the photo and 1 had a boy. Wouldn’t say it was particularly skewed towards pink girly.

I don’t agree with the hoover too thing at all, sorry. That hasn’t been my experience. As with PP, they’re mainly yellow green etc.

Also slime - there’s a whole smile range which is purple/pink. Glam goo I think it’s called? It takes up a section of an aisle in Smyths?

You are actually allowed to buy her whatever you think she'd like.

You are actually allowed to buy her whatever you think she'd like.

I doubt the OP is under the impression she has to buy from any particular aisle, do you? With your penetrating insight, wouldn't you agree it's slightly more likely that she doesn't like the stereotyping options being aggressively marketed at her daughter at such a young age?

No, it must be that she thinks she not allowed.

Try finding a craft set for a child interested in cars or dinosaurs or space! They are pretty much exclusively pink, butterflies, trolls, hearts. I just want to be able to buy a £3 craft kit at The Range for my child that they will be excited about.

Amazon is your friend here. There are oodles.

My 6 year old daughter asked for Star Wars, Jurassic World & Harry Potter Lego for Christmas. Her favourite princess is Leia & she uses a light saber better than most boys her age! I don't ever worry about her not 'fitting in.' She's just perfect as she is :)

Omg people on this thread are so naive 🙄. Have you ever heard of marketing? People spend billions on it for a reason. It influences children to be sold an idea that some toys are for girls and others are for boys.

@Satsumatrifle my son got plenty of dinosaur craft for Christmas. Also got a paint your own car money box.

The best gift you can give DD is the confidence to be herself. Just buy what she likes. Today the LOLs were riding about in the playmobil ambulance and a woiden helecopter because they'd held the olympics and one hurt its leg. That mixture is what I like to see.

I don’t understand why superhero Lego is only for boys? It doesn’t have a label on it or anything. I myself am quite partial to a bit of superhero Lego or a Marvel movie! Imo you’re projecting your own opinions onto toys that aren’t labelled with sexes.

Today I played with my 5 year old dd and 7 year old ds and some of the toys they got for Christmas. Dd got a Make a snowman craft kit, ds wanted to join in so they both made their own snowman. Then I helped dd make a lego set, it was a cool lego friends jungle animal rescue with a volcano and helicopter. When we were finished ds played with it. Then we moved on to a family board game - throw throw burrito that ds got but both kids really enjoyed. Lastly we finished up with Botley the coding robot that dd got from her grandparents, it was great fun and ds cant wait to have a try tomorrow. The moral being that toys are toys and whether geared towards boys, girls or both if the child is interested in it they will play with it.

Just buy the toys you think she’ll like, regardless of the colour or theme...

I buy my daughter any toy she likes the look of, be it from the girls or boys section. She has had 4 bikes, only only one of these has been girly the others have been green, blue or grey. She is quite a girly girl but doesn't stop her liking boys toys

My dd is 20, you don't have to shop in the "girls" aisle of course but I agree there shouldn't BE a "girls" aisle and a "boys" aisle.

I followed what she was enjoying playing with at nursery where of course there was no such differentiation in the toy boxes and she had at home a mix of toys from the dolls and prams to Lego and toy cars and trucks and stickle bricks and whatever. The pram was mostly used to wheel around her favourite dinosaur and toy motorbike! My dn's similar one nephew in particular had a pull along cart thing that he turned into a pram of sorts himself he's got a very nurturing nature and he made blankets and pillows for his toys and took them around in that. He's now late teen and still very nurturing type babysits mainly for pocket money and is very popular, also plays rugby and is built like a brick outhouse and hits opponents a little hard at times I'm told.

Don't worry about getting her something that you think may make her "not feel like she fits in with all the other girls" kids aren't like that at this age.

Let her choose things, let her browse toy shop sites or Argos with you and point out the toys she's interested in etc

Let her lead you

My dd was absolutely obsessed with motorbikes for years, I was really worried as soon as she was old enough she'd be roaring off doing wheelies! As it happens she outgrew that but would love a particular very unfashionable (as in it's NEVER been fashionable it's a car model that's often the butt of jokes) if she ever learns to drive, which is a whole new worry!

Nephews parent is genuinely worried they're so mad about kids that they'll become a father very young and has tried to impress upon them to wait and that it's not all cuddles and playing!

Another dn is obsessed with travelling and planes and thrill seeking and that is worrying their - adrenaline junkie! - parent! (Now they know how my poor mum feels!)

They are their own people and they gravitate towards things you would never have imagined.

One of my favourite photos of her was on her 3rd birthday when she was wearing a Rapunzel princess dress but brandishing a Bob the Builder drill.

Yep my dd spent a week refusing to wear anything but a fairy outfit with wings but also wellies (black so as to look like biker boots) and a dress up motorcyclists helmet! She'd have slept in that bloody helmet if she could have! Had to bribe her to get her to take it off for her bath!

My daughter had ‘Thor’ Lego for Christmas - not sure I get the whole ‘this type of Lego is for Boys’ thing.

I get your annoyance but your post implies you have a 5 year old who likes Lego. That's great, just buy Lego and let her play with it. Is it meant for boys or girls?... Who cares.

We put these limitations on our kids. It's not Legos fault.

Just ask your daughter what she wants and buy it. It really doesn’t matter what it is.

My parents always bought me the boys toys. I had Scalextrix; Lego Police station; train sets; cars and a mat that looked like roads; WWF wrestlers, plus the ring...all to make some sort of point.

All I wanted was a couple of My Little Pony, a play kitchen and a freaking Barbie doll. My friends had all things pink and glittery, I grew up jealous.

Some children want dolls, others want Lego, others want computer games etc it doesn’t bother me which sex wants which toys. If the boy wants a doll, fine. If the girl wants the truck, fine. Just ask the child what they’d like to play with and get them what they’d like.

These days I buy anything that glitters, paint my nails with pink sparkle, dress in pink pink and more pink, collect Disney Princess merchandise, collect Barbie dolls and I won’t let my husband in the kitchen. I am proud to be a girly, girl. I have a son and buy him whatever he likes, it just so happens that as he grew up he loved Ben 10, Marvel and anything Apple, but I always allowed him to find what he liked on TV, pick his own books and choose his own interests.

Shop in montessori stores they have toys that are aimed at kids. Not aimed at some gender stereotype based bs. I am so sick of the stereotypicsl "boy " and "girl" toys/colors.

For whatever gender really. But yeah for girls it is all pink and very looks obsessed
For boys it is all cool and tough and dark colored. With superheroes or vehicles or dinosaurs. (Dont think for one sec the stereotype boy toys are any better then the stereotype girl things op...)

I roll my eyes at all the pink princess stuff a bit, but I think it's also truthful (and a little taboo) to say that most adult women don't have much interest in drills, carpentry, tradework etc. It's very rare to see women in building crews etc.

There are issues with overly pink toys. I agree the OP can just buy whatever for her daughter. My eldest was mainly into dinosaurs, trains and octonauts which was fine by me. But now my girls are 8 & 12 and all the gaming merch, minecraft/Nintendo tshirts etc, are aimed at boys it does make me mad.

are being a little dramatic about this, all the manufacturers & retailers care about is taking your money.

I don’t understand why superhero Lego is only for boys?

It isn't. But it is targeted at the male market.
Ironically, the Superhero Girls theme wasn't very successful at all. DC characters at high school with it's matching tv show etc. Wasn't Lego's fault. They made the sets because they had the licence but even the large Barbie type dolls didn't sell and within the year they were all on clearance and forgotten about.

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

I would say girls have more choice: the run of the Lego / logical games isles, whilst my DS wouldn’t be seen dead in the “pink” isle.

If your daughter likes Lego - then buy Lego (you do not HAVE to buy pink), just buy her what she will like! If it's from the 'boy' isle it's just a toy she likes! I personally think gendering toys is stupidly missing a market.

My eldest disliked pink and dolls at the best of times, but she always liked wheels, her favourite toy at 6 months was a wooden pull along block on wheels with peg people in it (perhaps why she passed her test after just 10 lessons with no minors and has her HGV licence now), farm toys (has degree in agriculture) and model horses (rides to a respectable level)
She disliked dresses and refused to wear them once she found skirts hindered crawling progress - and still won't wear dresses today. We have never pandered to the pink expectations of 'girl' but always only to her likes and tastes. Her favourite colours are blue grey and purple, and always have been.

Just buy her the 'boys' Lego then. My little boy loves Frozen so has some Frozen toys. They're just toys not boys/ girls.