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Original poster

Anyone else up for emailing Early Learning Centre to object...

38 replies

hunkermunker · 03/04/2007 22:54

..about their ridiculous penchant for pink and blue toys?

What's wrong with a green/red/orange/yellow sandpit?

It's not like you're going to buy one for your DD and one for your DS, are you? (And if you do, you're a touch mental, so go and rub your favourite ornaments and get off my thread).

I mean, they've got a pink and a blue wheelbarrow and barbecue, ffs.

OP posts:
ediemay · 03/04/2007 22:55

Drives me mad. Even the paddling pools FGS.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 03/04/2007 22:56

Do they? I thought they always seemed pretty multicoloural?

greens and oranges etc...

did you see the thread for your ds earlier?

ScoobyDooooo · 03/04/2007 22:56

I hate this too, lots of places have started this pink & blue business but to be quite honest i have a boy & a girl & i would prefer other colours like orange, yellow, green etc etc.

Hassled · 03/04/2007 22:56

Even the really quite cool keyboard/microphone thingy

TwinklemEGGan · 03/04/2007 22:56

I'm endlessly disappointed by the ELC actually. I keep going in there to look and always walk out with nothing.

hatrick · 03/04/2007 22:57

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Califrau · 03/04/2007 22:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bozza · 03/04/2007 22:58

ELC used to do more green/orange etc colours. I bought DD a sandpit (was to replace a red/blue/yellow one of DS's that had seen better days) and I got the blue one even though DD is supposed to be the last child so no passing down issues. I think it was the first one I came to.

bozza · 03/04/2007 22:59

TBH I go in there, look around, "got that, got that, got that" and come out again.

TwinklemEGGan · 03/04/2007 22:59

Actually, my DB got DS one of their Blossom Farm musical lamb things for his cot. If I'm being honest it's hideous (and definitely multi-coloured) but DS loves it - no accounting for taste!

Original poster
hunkermunker · 03/04/2007 22:59

Didn't see the thread, VVV - can you bump it?

The DSs have a blue sandpit now (I love the ELC table sandpit - DS1 would play with it All Day if I let him!) - I'd have got the pink one, but I don't like pink much - and especially not the ELC pink - it's just too "nyah"!).

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VeniVidiVickiQV · 03/04/2007 23:01

HAve done already lady...

snowleopard · 03/04/2007 23:06

I got a nice toybox from there that is green, blue, yellow and red - basically primary colours and very nice - for DS. (It was officially the "boy" one - the other colourway was pink and lilac - but it's just nice and bright not "boy" colours.

Do agree that the general pink/blue trend at ELC and elsewhere is daft though. Was in John Lewis today with DS - they basically had boys bedroom stuff in blue with space theme or green with military theme (mmm, lovely), and girls' stuff in pink, pink and more pink with flowers and fairies. Not only is there nothing for shared rooms, there's never any interesting theme for girl's stuff. You never, or hardly ever, get pink stuff with a space/bugs/transport/etc. theme. It's so crap and sexist.

Homebird8 · 03/04/2007 23:17

Sounds like a business for someone

NurseyJo · 03/04/2007 23:21

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Spidermama · 03/04/2007 23:22

Market driven I reckon.

madamez · 03/04/2007 23:30

I don't know, Spidermama, I think quite a lot more people would prefer gender-neutral stuff as most people who have more than one child or plan to have more than one child are likely to have more than one gender. I heard a theory that the whole point of this wretched gender-dividing among kids stuff is actually to make the punters buy more of it (while reinforcing all the worst stereotypes at the same time is just one of those things that's not supposed to matter).
Having said that, I do quite like the fact that the ELC does a toy stroller and dollbaby in blue as well as pink, quite cheaply. DS has long been very keen on pushing toy strollers round at toddler group, so I was determined to buy him one of his own, but didn't really want to get a pink one and have to go through all the endless explanations with strangers - "he's a little boy actually... well he likes to push buggies... well why shouldn't he have one.. no you nosy old twunt sexual orientation is not dependent on playing with toy guns and trucks now get out of my face etc"

But if he wants a full set of Bratz bedlinen for his next birthday, budget permitting, he shall have it...

PeachyChocolateEClair · 03/04/2007 23:49

They've got a fabulous wooden sandpit in their- like amini picnic table, but lift the lid and it ahs sand in. In erm, wood colour.. Saw it today.

Admittedly not cheap, but lovely.

PeachyChocolateEClair · 03/04/2007 23:50

LOL Madamez- as a Mum to 3 boys I amso glad to have done my bit to stuff the amrketing exec types!

IdrisTheDragon · 03/04/2007 23:51

Yes. Why has the wooden dolls house gone pink? There is no need for it (although we do live in a pink house).

Original poster
hunkermunker · 03/04/2007 23:52

But if they made a green or orange or red pushchair, both boys and girls could push them without having to explain. I have a blue pushchair for DS, but I wouldn't have bought a pink one if DS2 had been a girl.

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Original poster
hunkermunker · 03/04/2007 23:53

Peachy, it's the plastic sandpit DS1 particularly likes - it's the fixed-in toys you can pour sand through he adores.

A green one would've looked nicer in the garden though

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PeachyChocolateEClair · 03/04/2007 23:55

We were in their today and DS3 took a shine yto the wooden kitchen, he didnt caere it was pink so why should I? Perhaps the key is for us as parents to stop adhering to these, frankly, bizarre rules?

DS1 had a red pushchair though, rather than pink. I will admit that.

littleEasterlapin · 03/04/2007 23:58

DS just got that sandpit table thingy as an early birthday pressie from his grandparents... it does look fab!

Original poster
hunkermunker · 03/04/2007 23:59

I have no problem with DS1 having pink things. I'd have bought him hot pink wellies if he'd actually wanted wellies at all the other day (he is NOT a fan of footwear other than shoes - brown shoes [accountant in the making] - but he cheerfully marched round Primark in hot pink wellies.

So it's not pink I have a problem with, it's the shade of it ELC uses. The blue is more bearable. But I'd still like red or orange or yellow or purple or green in some of these toys.

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