to be a bit gobsmacked that people think meccano isnt a 'proper' gift for a girl.

[ShauntheSheep]

Dd has asked for junior meccano for Christmas (as well as shiney clip clop shoes ). I didnt think anything of it tbh. Seems pretty normal to me. Its just another toy but LOADS of people have commented ranging from 'You cant buy her that. Its a boys toy.' to 'How strange. Is she a tomboy?'.

AIBU to think that junior meccano is a normal toy for any 5 year old to want? A bit like lego/knex/geomag etc really?

I had loads of meccano, dd aged 8 has loads. YANBU. I still play with it now.

YANBU. I hate this idea of boys toys and girl toys. I have to restrain myself when I hear someone telling their ds 'that's a girl's toy'' or their dd''that's a boy's toy''.

I think it's a good gift, sod em.
YOur DD asked for it as well, so you know she'll like it and it's educational.
I am still getting over the fact that I didn't get a train set when I asked FC for one, ooh 28years ago. I got a doll in a crib, bleauurgh!
Now I have 2 boys, so am surrounded by trains

Can't see much difference between meccano and lego tbh.

My dd played with both.

yanbu
it does annoy me that gender stereotyping exists, dd once told me that she couldn't watch something she liked because one of her friends had said it was a boy's programme. they are both 3!!!

As long as she likes it, then it is an appropriate gift IMO. I know quite a few girls who wouldn't like it, but I can't see anything wrong with her having meccano any more than a boy having a doll. It just depends what they like.

YANBU at all.

Why not? We had one that made a guillotine (no, really, it did)

Mine would like it too (as would I)

Well my 6 yr old loves meccano. She plays with some from a big box out of M&D's attic that belonged to my brothers from 30 odd years ago. I used to want to play with it too, but back then, in toldendays, i was steered away from it.#

But now, thank gooodness we've all moved on, right?! No gender stereotyping these days? right!?

Of course YANBU. Just another sign of how much we've slipped back into the bad old days. There was none of this pink toys and blue toys in ELC when I was little!

Sod them!

I hate sex specific toys and i noticably cringe at the Advert on at the moment with the girl making cakes and the boy doing 'rocket science' on the desks that turn into play centers.

Get your DD what she wants.

I think thats why I was so gobsmacked because I really thought that attitudes had changed but the peopel making the comments were all younger people mainly people in their 20s and 30s. Its such a pity really.

Speaking of girls and boys toys I detest this advert, and it's a relatively recent advert too.

I love when my laundry gets so clean

It's scary how much ground has been lost. If you look at attitudes to rape, for instance, you'll see people in their 20s are horrifyingly hostile to victims.

Schools are only just being told by govt. that they should be tackling sexism as well as racism. We've allowed this horribly sexualised culture to hit our teenagers, with Nuts and Zoo on display in the newsagent as if soft porn is acceptable. Not surprising so many people have attitudes that come out of the Ark.

Yuck to that ad - I had a wendy house as a child but no-one TOLD me I had to do the ironing!

Speaking of ads, those ones where one woman tells another how fabulous Bold automatic is or whatever were known as 'two C**s in a K' (kitchen) in the industry. Lovely.

I have been dreaming of the day I buy DD meccano since the day she was born! Unfortunately in that respect, DD has been identified as having developmental delays, so it might be a while!

I have such fond memories of doing my brother's meccano when I was younger.

YANBU.

My dd's into pirates and you've only got to look at a toy website/catalogue to see that they think pirates are for boys.

Sexism has yet to be stamped out.

But ... if you have a vagina, you can't enjoy building things. Obviously.

Good god woman, buy her some makeup or a doll or something, and stop being silly!

I wasn't fussed about meccano but I did LOVE lego and was lucky enough to have the most fantastic model railway (my father worked for British Rail and drives steam engines in his spare time).

This isn't terribly relevant to the thread but this is truly awful. It is from the 50s but still it's pretty shocking imho.

Possibly the most vomit inducing ad ever

I still feel aggrieved that I didn't have meccano, or a train set, or scaletrix when I was a child.

DD1 has the scaletrix (though it has a broken car we need to fix) and the train set and you've just given me a great idea for Xmas

it drives me mad too, and then you'll have the same (or similar) parents also saying stuff like "girls and boys are just sooooo different, I would never have believed it til I had kids myself" - yeah right, and until you gave dolls to the girlies and dressed them all in pink with flowers and fairies and gave meccano to the boyos while dressing them in shades of bue and brown with trucks and dinos on...amazing how different they are...

I thought I'd longed for Scaletrix and had been refused. Spoke to my mother the other day about buying some for ds and she pointed out Father Christmas did provide. Only my Dad broke it on Christmas Day!

(Must remind him he OWES me a set )

yanbu i hate all this 'not for girls' shit

veering off the subject slightly, i took ds2 to see Cinderella last week and he wore a pink tiara and fairy wings for the occassion

Dd1 wants maccano for christmas but i have already bought her too much playmobil so she will be getting it for her 5th birthday, she hates girly things.

YAY for vinegar's son!