What to do with my tomboy?

[Beauregard]

I will list her interests:
Climbing
Eating stuff
Climbing
Drawing on stuff
Climbing
Breaking stuff
climbing

enjoy her? and be thankful shes not a big girly wuss?

she does seem to like to climb alot i am a big tom boy, so is dd1 (17) i am quite anal about sexual stereotyping and cant quite bring myself to buy dd2 a dolly (shes 23m). she does have a train set though but she is girly girl girly girly - very sweet, so vain, already Shes proper lovely though I think children have individual personalities. Yours sounds like a real livewire.

I do enjoy her but need to know how to play with her.

my ds1 has a term, 'cool girls', to indicate girls like your dd.

How old is she? She sounds v. cool, if exhausting (the climbing thing I know gets wearing, ds has broken so many things here).

Would she play better with more boyish type toys?

How old?

Take her to the playground lots

18 months

She is lethal

The only way I can use up ds's energy is to go to parks and soft play a lot where he can climb legitimately. He loves fast running and races now too (knackers me out).

YOu say she likes drawing too, will she sit down and do it at all? Ds likes mixing paint into a grey mess and smearing it all over himself and the general environment (I let him do it outside!!)

at that age I tend to let them get on with exploring what they want to and intervening when necessary they don't tend to want to play much in my experience, eldest one just wanted to talk, be involved and never played but they others just did their own thing mostly.

if she appreciates speed/power etc you could try some boy toys. But if she's the physical type it's probably really good to try to take her to environments she can conquer. Every day. It knackers you out though.

Not sure if it's the drawing she likes or eating the crayons
This morning i could have sworn she was sorting the crayons by flavour.

im sorry, i just jesting, didnt mean to offend. I think its hard knowing how to play with an 18 old, tomboyish or not. I think the swing park is a god send. Swimming? Beach if you have one? You could maybe encourage some creative play with some craft stuff, might encourage her to sit down for five minutes. I actually struggle to find things to do with DD (shes just 2)

my dd is a tomboy , doesnt climb as muchand seems to have loads of boys as friends! I tend to get her a whole mix of things , both typical boys and girls. She has trucks , lego ,train sets, dolls and dolls houses.

I was reading about this actually this evening ! It was suggested that if tomboys have a good relationship with dads who take them to football and physical stuff and mums gets involved in the the things they are interested in then it really helps them feel good about not being typically girly.

Tried to take her swimming on our hols and she screamed before we even had her toes in the water.
The park is good if not raining but generally she just runs round on the concrete or climbs on the equipment that is too big for her.

My 11 month old is heading that way. She just looks at me and laughs if she falls off stuff and terrorises her big sister. I worry.

dd1 is not very girly but was much more sedate at this age,lol.

Well she might like "boys'" toys such as wooden train set you can piece together, and stickle bricks. My DS loves these and I get quite into playing with them with him, especially the stickle bricks. You can then have lots of fun tearing them apart.

(Ikea best for the train stuff.)

i would persevere with the swimming, my dd screamed at first, we just sat on the edge for an hour, she lurrrves it now. I like it too, its quite relaxing.

Think i shall need to get some 'boys' toys.

an 18-month-old in general wants to climb, chew things and scribble, and they are knackering. But, like puppies, they benefit from a daily outing to the park/beach/playground, even if it's wet ( get her some wellies and a mac and let her jump in puddles - great fun and good for burning off energy).

FWIW It's good to avoid the term 'tomboy' the same way you'd avoid calling a DS who preferred dolls a 'sissy' - both these terms suggest that males are of more value than females ie it's cute and amusing for a girl to want to be 'male' (because males are what should be aspired to) but disgusting and wrong for a boy to want to be 'female' (because females are weak and inferior).
If you have an active adventurous DD praise her for her bravery, agility, energy etc but don't tell her she's 'like a boy'. She's herself.

Madamez i don't consider the word 'tomboy' as offensive,i use it to describe her behaviour.
It is merely who she is,that doesn't make it wrong.
She is fabulous ,i just want to know how i can play with her and keep her interested.

And a sensitive boy in my opinion is not a sissy.

madamez - that is quite a good point you have made there re the tomboy thing. That is true isnt it, how it is considered absolutely fine for girls to be a bit boyish but not the other way around, in fact i think i spotted a thread on here earlier about someone wanting to "macho up" her boys.

I remember a wee lad who lived next door to my friend, he was always dressing up in girls clothes, right down to mummys shoes and make up, he went out to the park like it with the other boys!!! he was about 7, not sure if he ever grew out of it, but he was happy