small children and their gender stereotypes....

[hatwoman]

ok, so perhpas it's true but....dd (5) made dh and I some certificates (she was doing them for her teddies). dh got one for "being very lovely and very very clever". I got one for "being very lovely and very very kind"....ouch.

is it true, hatwoman?

Actually in that situation I think I would be more upset if I were your dh. Unkind dh. Oh dear.

Don't underestimate the quality of being kind! Although I understand what you're getting at with your 'ouch' comment, do you really think that your dd sees cleverness and kindness as mutually exclusive?

What a lovely compliment that your dd has identified you as being a kind person

You can go a long way in life by being a kind person.

Ds has playmobile plane, I put a woman in the pilots seat once, he promptly removed her saying 'she serves teh drinks'

much better (esp in the eyes of a child esp) to be kind than clever anyway

i recently started working p/t and my ds (nearly 4) looked at me perculiarly and said but mummys don't go to work. only daddys do.

I think it was Balomory and a lady was driving a bus?

Anyway DS started laughing loudly, and when i asked him what he was laughing at he said "Ladies don't drive buses!!!" !!!!!

He also has the playmobil plane. I picked up a lady and said "is this the pilot" and he said "Mummy, the pilot is a man!!"

I remember when I was at primary school we were learning about "man" (as in the generic "mankind") and I wrote how man's wife would cook his tea for him and clean his house.

My parents went to some lengths to tell me that "man" culd also cook the tea and clean the house.

My ds (5) told me recently he is going to marry his 6 year old friend and have lots of babies. When I asked who would look after the babies he said "she will, while I go and do an important job". I pointed out that she might want to go and do an important job too, and he said "that's OK, we'll get a nanny". What have I brought up?!

My DS aged 3 was asked by me:
"Are you the boss?" and replied "I can't be a boss I'm not a girl"

well, DS(6) claimed that only men could be doctors and women were nurses - despite being attended by lots of female doctors in hospital and a male nurse! Apparently this was the case "on TV".

My 3 yr old son said to me the other day 'Lady-womans don't drive and they don't go to work'. Great. (I'm currently a SAHM - sort of, as studying and writing, too - and recently failed my driving test - He clearly has no memory of when I left him as a baby in wraparound daycare so I could work full time! Anyhooo...) I said to DH 'That's it. As soon as baby no.2 is popped out I'm going back to some sort of out-of-the-house work. I'm not having my son saying things like that!'.

On a lighter note, my DS also thinks that 'Lady-Womans smell lovely and are beautiful. Big mans are stinky and prickly.' Quite.

I love your primary school writings branflake. when dh was at primary school his school was shut for the day because it was a polling station for an election. His dad explained to him what an election was: "It's when everybody gets to choose who they think should be in the government". dh replied: "What? Even the ladies?"

his was a lefty and progressive house - fil is a lecturer, mil was a teacher. how does this stuff happen?!

This stuff partly happens because of the roles children see in their homes.

I am working hard on my DDs. Last year, DD2 wrote an essay on how she wanted to be a nurse, 'I will show the patients to their room and hold their hands and be kind to them and sometimes give them medicine. I don't want to be a doctor because they do the yukky stuff.'
Some of her classmates' mums, who are nurses, kindly explained that actually the nurses do most of the yucky stuff. Yesterday she asked me what A-level grades she will need to do medicine. She is 8.