3 yearold loves pink and girls characters, anyone?

[Leonor888]

Hello! my 3 year old son recently started loving pink and pretend play and he has mostly chosen female characters. have your boys gone through this phase? there's a lot of shame in talking about it but I think it's normal. He loves dinos and fights! Thank you

Shame? Are you ashamed? He's 3!
Leave it out

Have b/g DT’s. Pre school days all toys were joint as were most clothes. They played equally with dolls, trucks, Lego and the most popular toy - a vacuum cleaner.
No colours, toys or clothes are specifically for boys or girls

Totally normal for boys to like pink, it's a lovely cheerful colour, why wouldn't they like it?

Same with girl characters, there's a lot to like. It's good to teach boys they have more in common with girls, and vice versa. Helps them develop better social skills.

No, not me. Mums in general. I think some boys go through this and they dont Tell!!

All children go through a phase of small world / pretend / roll play. Is he actually choosing female characters as in “my name is sally and I’m a girl” is he acting out traditional female roles that you perceive to be female characters e.g. playing with dolls and making food?

Either way it’s cool, and he’s just being a kid. Why does it worry you?

What messages have you absorbed and internalised that are colouring your thinking?

Why would it be shameful to prefer pink to orange?

*role

Sure, i do that! But he only choses girls characters , besides dinosaurs and elephants 😅

My son is 3 and likes to be a princess sometimes. Specifically he wants to be Elsa.

He's moved on now and isn't as princess like any more

Don't model shame and do talk about it. My friend's little boy was properly obsessed with Frozen, for ages. It was great. He hung out with a lot of girls and had loads of friends. Mainly girls.

He's a very boring 10 yo now if that's the worry!

My 6 year old and 5 year old still fight over their sisters hair accessories and jewelery, they are also a bit miffed that they have outgrown her ballet outfit. Oh I've also got a lovely photo of my 12 year old wearing his favourite blue and yellow princess dress with a heart shaped bucket for Halloween aged 4.

Ex-post @Twizbe

Clearly Elsa has something!

No shame in my circles about this.

he plays with boys' toys and neutral toys, here at home we always had pink and kitchen toys and we don't make that distinction. but now he has shown a preference for being the girls characters he sees on television and never a boy

Perfectly normal and vice versa. No shame and perhaps people don’t say because it’s normal and to be expected. Do you go up to strangers and tell them you ate breakfast or do you think it’s normal, to be expected and doesn’t need to be said? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Problem is many parents buy specific girl or boy toys rather than treating all toys as children’s toys. Same with colours of clothes

yes both my sons loved a pair of pink sparkly shoes, a dress and pushing a pram with a toy doll in. They both 'grew out of it' in that society soon squashed it out of them. I don't recall them picking girl characters particularly though.

Very very normal.

When i ask my friends they say: oh no my boys are so masculine and they Love boys toys and playing like something is wrong with my boy

@Leonor888

he plays with boys' toys and neutral toys, here at home we always had pink and kitchen toys and we don't make that distinction. but now he has shown a preference for being the girls characters he sees on television and never a boy

My son has only recently started to understand gender. As in he could tell you he's a boy but what 'boy' means is beyond him. He's only just got that boys have a penis and girls a vulva. His pronoun use is all over the place lol

I think with Elsa he saw a character he wanted to be rather than a girl he wanted to be (if that makes sense)

Your friends are twats.

Yes he has everything here, and i show him more Disney girl filmes because i like it. He has the opportunity of trying everything

Really? I have two nephews who love pink, glitter, unicorns and Elsa. Besides, youn g children are just young children, my brother braided my dolls hair and I played with his legoes and cars. Those things aren't really gender specific in themselves. We adults just decided that they are but kids don't think like that. Pink used to be a boys colour actually in the olden days.

Your friends shouldn't be so gender specific. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of gender confusion in young people stem from the fact that they don't feel that they can truly be themselves with alllthose gender constraints. Plenty of adults also have hobbies and interests that traditionally might not be "their" gender (like martial arts, soccer, painting, cooking et cetera).

I was going to say 'you need some new friends' but @MrsTerryPratchett said it so much better!

Personally I think it is really sad that anyone would think there is any 'shame' with children playing with children's toys regardless of colour or type.

My ds always had a range of toys and played equally with everything. Ds2's favourite colour was pink for many many years and we did not think anything of it. Ds3 loved the film Frozen when he was little and when he went to the toy shop to spend his Christmas money he chose an Anna doll and a light saber.

If anyone tells you what you child 'should' play with based on their sex they are being ridiculous.

It’s just so sad Our that our society still has so many prejudices... i just hate it

My son was like this. He used to steal his sister's dressing up clothes and wear her little pretend high heels and jewellery.

He's now 8 and has dressed exclusively in a football strip for at least two years.