Opinions on gender-neutral toys

[mumzylou]

Hi guys I would like everyones thoughts on gender-neutral toys concerning development of skills, is it more beneficial for a child to play with toys designed for their specific gender?

Thank you.
Louise

require the type of problem solving brain a male tends to have

haha what a joke. I have a very traditional male problem solving type job. My female brain has not hindered me in any way.
There are more and more women coming through as they are encouraged in the field. They are coping just fine.

As for toys, I get the impression that children just want to fit in with their peers. They want to be 'normal' and if for a girl that means wearing pink and liking princesses then why not.

There used to be a lot less of this pink / blue division. I had relatively gender neutral toys growing up.

No one says men can’t be teachers or nurses but we get a lot less of them than females. You might want to read up about history of teaching as a profession, if you think this is something biologically more suited for women.

How are toys ‘designed for one gender’ pray? Since the only physical difference between little girls and little boys is genitalia? A toy is a toy.

Ds plays with all sorts of stuff. Round at friends the other day he enjoyed their sandpit and digger and he also enjoyed trundling a little shopping trolley round. He asked for a trolley when we left. Nursery has dolls and cars and building blocks and dress up and they just play with whatever they want.

The strict pink/blue thing is just shit. What’s boy specific about space rockets and dinosaurs ffs?

Just let kids play with stuff. All the stuff. It’s not a hard concept to grasp

DDs favourite toys are lego and Ipad. Pretty gender neutral.

when I pick my 3 year old son up from nursery three little girls were all playing with baby dolls and the boys were either drawing or playing with cars

When my son started childcare, he also started coming out with 'this is for boys/girls' statements. Other kids will make sure you know what's suitable.

A mix of toys is best. And to encourage your child to play with something they are not naturally inclined to sometimes is also a good idea I think.
My son gravitates towards traditional boys toys, obsessed with anything that moves or you can take apart or build.
But I also try and provide him with social role playing toys, he has dolls and a dolls house. Kitchen and pram with baby doll. And he will play with these things when I mention them of start him off with a role play.
I think different toys encourage different interests so its always good to mix toys that are traditionally for different genders rather than buying specifically gender neutral stuff.
I also dont want to encourage the idea that my son couldnt like anything that was specifically aimed at girls. I mean why cant he play with a pink doll thats marketed to girls? Why does he have to play with something labelled as 'gender neutral' to me that just adds to the whole concept of traditionally girl stuff being stupid or beneath boys.

At all the infant schools I've worked in, there have been no gender-based toys. There might have been a couple of donated pushchairs and and a box of cars maybe. Everything else is bricks, games, scooters, ride-ons, animals etc and nothing 'blue' or 'pink'. Any evidence of gender preference toys is from home. No child ever stands there wailing they have nothing to play with.

OP, can you think of any reasons yourself why you think limiting the toys children can play with, based on their gender, could be beneficial?

Children also play very happily with boxes, spoons, saucepan lids, bags, mud, cotton reels and almost any object they can lay their hands on. None of these are gender specific, all of them can play an important developmental role.
Children from pre-school age are very good at pigeonholing themselves and each other, there is no need for adults to to be reinforcing the pigeonholing.

@G5000 I don’t think teaching is suited more to females. I know the history but that was also back when women didn’t work!! What I am saying now is that in every school I have taught in there has been a huge % of women. Teachers and teaching assistants. The profession struggles to attract men.