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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be annoyed by this on the early learning centre website...

147 replies

dreamylady · 01/12/2009 21:43

"For the little princess in the family we have great feminine outfits like Butterfly Fairy, Sleeping Beauty, Ballerina and Nurse's uniform. Why not add a medical case for that extra touch of authenticity.

The boys are catered for too, with great Doctor, Policeman & Fireman uniforms, not to mention fantastic Pirate and Knight costumes. All these can be combined with a range of accessories so your child will really look the part."

Here's the page: www.elc.co.uk/toys/dressing-up-roleplay/dressing-up-outfits/?filter=filter&category=604

gr r!! I've already written them an email to complain, but I wondered what the general mumsnetter concensus would be?

OP posts:
Plutothatpresentdown · 01/12/2009 23:16

YANBU I can't stand the ELC. I agree with Shockers. When I had DS1 ten years ago it was OK. Now, with DS2, it's just full of pastel plastic crap. We never go in there. It's really difficult to find a good toy shop on the high street - but internet is good.

Original poster
dreamylady · 01/12/2009 23:16

scottishmummy I think we're kind of on the same wavelength - although DD does have quite a lot of toys, they are way outnumbered by her books, and we have already started to talk to her about what university is and she's visited my office a few times. But like I said, I want her to enjoy her childhood too and be able to let her imagination run riot. Ooh I must go to bed before I get any more tired and emotional, I'm wanting to go and wake her up and give her a big hug . She would not appreciate that one bit!

OP posts:
scottishmummy · 01/12/2009 23:20

not on hothousing but discussion it is achievable,and mum,dad and wee friends from nursery their mum/dads work too

but don't look for brand commercialism or cynical marketing to be sensitive and appropriate it wont be

FairyLightsForever · 01/12/2009 23:25

Why is it that the blue toys often have other primary colours on them, whereas the pink versions are always various shades of loathsome candyfloss pink.
This is a relatively new craze, when my DS was born 12 years ago most things were in primary colours. So much better.

Original poster
dreamylady · 01/12/2009 23:33

Brands are so important in this commercialised society that companies have to work hard to protect them - so it is worthwhile kicking up a stink.
You can maybe protect your own children from marketing but that's difficult to do without isolating them from their peers - and if you don't do anything about it they will still eventually be adults in a world full of people who have been influenced by this marketing while they were young.

Really off to bed now I've got a high powered job to perform well in tomorrow

OP posts:
TheCrackFox · 01/12/2009 23:35

This pisses me right off TBH. My 2 boys love playing with the cooking stuff (DH is a chef) but refuse, because of peer pressure, to play with pink toys. ELC is obsessed with making a lot of its toys sodding pink. Do men not cook?
It isn't the 1950's anymore.

DS2 wanted a toy buggy and it was bloody difficult to find one that wasn't pink. Do men not look after babies?

VicarInaTinselTuTu · 01/12/2009 23:46

does the colour REALLY matter? cant remember getting this steamed up about colours when DS got a play kitchen or DD got a toolkit.

im thinking there must surely be greater evils in the world to get steamed up about.

Chaotica · 01/12/2009 23:52

Vicar... - Colour doesn't matter - it's the role stereotyping which makes a difference (there is no pink train set etc, just a blue one). I could go on...

Agree that toys are not that important. But the DCs have a few of them all the same

redfuckingsofas · 01/12/2009 23:56

it doesn't really bother me if my children play with 'the wrong gender' toys, ds1 has got a play kitchen, shopping till, trolley and food, iron and ironing boardand even a jesse doll from toy story At parents evening his teacher told me he prefers playing teachers, mummy's and daddy's and kitchen stuff which i already knew. It doesn't bother me at all he likes cars, trains, planes, football ect too but at 3 he is just experimenting with play and growing up!!!!

MilkNoBrandyForSanta · 01/12/2009 23:57

ELC drives me mad! just have the god damn toy in one colour...but bo! they have to have a pink option to!
bloody stupid!

Clary · 01/12/2009 23:59

yy it's crap.

When my DC were little, you bought the eassel, table and chairs etc in one colour, bright green and purple (yes I know that's 2 colours but YKWIM). Now you have to choose between pink and blue.

Honestly, who's going to make their son paint at a pink easel? It's just the ELC trying to make you get 2 of everything and it really annoys me.

One of a number of reasons not to shop there IMO.

And to those who say "it's just advertising", it's suggesting to 4 yo girls that they cannot be a doctor or a firefighter. That's very much not OK in my book.

VicarInaTinselTuTu · 02/12/2009 00:12

but do 4 year olds really look that deeply into so called "gender stereotyping" at all?

to kids toys are toys. my son had a play kitchen, food, till, buggy.

my DD had a tool kit, cars and car mat, lego. i just dont get it? at all. i dont think it makes a jot of difference to their career choice in later life...
but im old. so maybe this is a new thing and one i happily bypassed when my two were little.

pooexplosions · 02/12/2009 00:23

Not true that "to kids toys are toys"

How many boys won't play with the bright pink toys because "theyre for girls"?

Its not the fact that kids toys should be for whoever wants to play with them, its the blatant unrelenting genderisation of things that need not be. Its the constant pushing of constructs such as big strong rough boys doing manly work and gentle pink fluffy princesses with baby dolls and pink sparkly accessories.

Its just so overt and over the top. its so unnecessary. Of course we can buy whatever we we want and discuss gender stereotyping with our children, but they are surrounded and bombarded with these messages, its just too much.

VicarInaTinselTuTu · 02/12/2009 00:36

well, thats one problem i never had. my aspie son (18 today) would happily play with "girls" toys and my daughter (12) has never balked at toy yet because "its for boys" so clearly i am doing them a huge disservice in not educating them properly in the rights and wrongs of politically correct play materials. i shall go and educate myself right now, and insist that my DD let me redecorate her pink and girly room forthwith to a more gender unspecific colour. i am forever in your debt at being shown the error of my ways.
i thank you. goodnight. id better go dig the magnolia paint out of the garage....

pooexplosions · 02/12/2009 00:42

think you missed the point again there Vicar... and whats the snippyness for?

inveteratenamechanger · 02/12/2009 01:12

YANBU - vile for all the reasons already mentioned.

NancyDrewRocks · 02/12/2009 04:31

You're overthinking it. Really.

Kids have inherent personalities which show a preference for certain behaviours: girls do tend towards more caring roleplay boys towards the more boistrous. The advertising reflects that.

Re the colours: Last time I looked you could buy a blue garage or a pink one. Fact is my DD would prefer to play with a pick garage over a blue one. DS however would just like to play with anything black!

stuffitllllama · 02/12/2009 04:42

the only annoying thing is nurse for a girl, doctor for a boy

stupid

TinselinaBumsquash · 02/12/2009 07:07

I dont shop in any shops that are sexist and have a 'girls section' and a 'boys section' (limits my shopping i can tell you!) i found the same in a lot of shops yesterday, 200 pairs of different glove sets for girls, all pink and sparkly and about 2 sets for boys which were black or Ben 10.

thumbwitch · 02/12/2009 07:22

YANBU at all. I loathe the "pink"-ing of toys that could quite easily be in neutral colours and therefore suitable for both.

And as for re-inforcing archaic gender stereotypes for job roles, that is beyond retro and someone should be shot for it, imo.

Luckily for me I can't shop in ELC any more as they don't have them here in Oz, or I haven't seen them anyway. We do have toys'r'us though

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 02/12/2009 07:39

YANBU
this is far bigger than childrens' outfits. It really goes to the heart of why and how boys/girls and men/women believe they are capable of such different things and limit themselves and are limited by others.

Very frustrating.

porcamiseria · 02/12/2009 08:56

I tend to agree, lots of firms manage to sell gender neutral stuff in bold primary colours. I struggled getting a dolls pram that was not pink and glittery. And agree why should girls be nurses and boys be doctors?

Its NOT the end of the world and I am not losing sleep but am slightly surpised that ELC still continue , whatevah!!!!

stillfrazzled · 02/12/2009 09:16

I have a 2yo DS, so he's not aware of pink being a 'girl' colour and is in fact obsessed with trains anyway. I want to buy him a toy kitchen for Christmas and am looking for a nice primary coloured one to pass down through the family.

Actually quite like ELC's turquoise one (my friend's DD adores it) but I'm not spending another penny in ELC until they de-pink and de-plastic cr*p the place a bit. And have just emailed to tell them so.

VicarInaTinselTuTu · 02/12/2009 09:19

poo - that wasnt snippiness

(it was sarcasmn.)

i really just think its a bit mad.i am just thinking back to my own childhood where i played with "boys" toys - i had a scalextric, lego, its not stopped me entering into an overwhelmingly male profession, and my kids never shunned anything because of the advertising or the colour of the perceived gender typing of the toy - so either things have really changed or its just another thing to get het up about. but...of course you are free to get het up about whatever you like!

Gracie123 · 02/12/2009 09:33

I know this is going to upset some people (I am totally prepared for oncoming flaming) but boys and girls are different and do enjoy different toys.

All this gender neutral advertising is based on flawed assumptions of the feminist movement from the 1970s. For two decades Toys R US implemented the 'gender neutral' approach to marketing only to find it completely unsuccessful. Finally the company administered over than ten thousand customer surveys to learn more about the preferences of children. It turned out that boys and girls were interested in different things. Surprise!

They then decided to display their toys in separate sections called 'boys world' and 'girls world' because it made no sense (in business terms) to do anything else!

There are always some children who want to play with toys that aren't typically associated with their gender, and hopefully their parents are sensible enough to give them the freedom to do so. But you can't blame a toy company for marketing to the majority. That's how they make money!