2 year old dd insists she is a boy

[Pushingonthrough]

I'm pretty sure this is a phase but thought I would throw it out there and see if anyone has had similar experiences.

We have 2 dds. From a very early age our youngest has gravitated towards the more traditionally masculine toys ie trucks, cars football etc. She now only wants to play with cars, dinosaurs, action figures, trains etc. In recent weeks she has refused to wear anything pink or even remotly girly. I took her clothes shopping and she wanted Thomas and Ben 10 tops! She won't touch anything that slightly resembles a girls item of clothing, regardless of colour - v annoying as I have sacks of girly hand me downs! (My eldest is a total princess).

Last week she got very upset when my dd1 called her a girl. She insisted she is a boy and was very distressed about it. We've had the same protestations ever since. She is also quite "boyish" in her mannerisms iyswim.

I was a total tomboy, but grew up with 3 older bros. But it was also a gradual thing - it certainly wasn't apparent at 2!

So any ideas? Is this a common phase or a possible gender issue? I would be interested to hear of any similar experiences.

to Morocco

My nearly 4 year old d.s sounds similar to your d.s. He is the middle boy out of three and loves all things girly and is obsessed with the little mermaid. He owns lots of dolls, my little ponies etc and naturally gravitates to the 'girls' section in the toyshop. When we go to visit friends with girls he is in heaven playing with all their toys. My husband and I have so far just gone with it in the hope that it will be a phase. We do not want him to be upset if he is teased by other children and have told him to tell them that "people just like what they like" if they question his taste in toys. ( We have experienced lots of "Why does that wee boy have a doll?" questions from other children not to mention some funny looks from other adults.

I just want my son to be happy and for birthdays and Christmas we just buy him the toys that he asks for (currently any disney princess) Somehow society seems to be more accepting of a girl being a 'tomboy' than a boy liking to play with what is considered to be girls things. My friends little girl loves all sports particularly football and no one bats an eyelid but I can see the other parents looking at my d.s and thinking mmmmmmmm thats a bit strange. glad its not my boy. I just would be interested to hear from any other parents of boys who are similar so we could compare experiences

draggedthrooabush - your ds sounds like my dgs. He's 3, and I swear I thought his mum (my adult DD) was going to lose grip when he put his fleece around himself (like a sari) and said he was a princess. I did manage to point out to her that he had just watched a little story cartoon on television about a little girl wanting to be an Indian princess in a sari, so it stands to reason he might play at that. otherwise, I doubt very much he'd know what a sari was. I don't see that it's that big a deal regardless. He plays for hours with toy cars as well. As long as he's having fun, I don't see what the problem is. That pretty much goes for boys or girls. Gender specific toys are a bit annoying anyway.