Why pink or blue?!

[adenby]

I've been told my baby's probably a girl which has prompted nightmare memories of my owm up-bringing marred by sexism, down to the seemingly trivial of always getting 'crap' toys like toy prams, toy ironing boards {!!} etc when I wanted a toy garage Why does it have to be so pink or blue, why can't kids just be kids without pushing old fashioned roles onto to them?

I know what you mean adenby but I have to say that despite my house being very girlie due to having a 3 year old daughter (not sure how it became so pink certainly not aware that I pushed any of it on her) DS is completely hooked on trains, cars, lorries etc. Not a single one in the house but if a lorry drives past he's itching to see it - where did that come from? He is only 1 (yesterday )

I agree. Toy irons, hoovers & kitchen sets when all I wanted was a chemistry set, train set or Adventure kit. Being told I couldn't have them 'because I was a girl' (grandparents, not parents - they were fab). Being bought 7 made to wear frilly & gingham dresses (I still have gingham-phobia).
IMO boys get much cooler toys. I wasn't into making jewellery, make-up, dressing up or any of that. My favourite toys at the time were a toy winchester repeater rifle and my space hopper

I know where you're coming from adenby We 'avoided' girly things when dd was little but now she's 4 and I think it's genetic... she's hooked on pink and fluffy! Then again she also loves airplanes and motorbikes.

Ds though from day 1 was a 'proper' boy but also loves nicking dd's dolly push chair, hand bags, necklaces etc. and we don't mind

I think partly for dd it's tv and peer influences from nursery

totally agree, there are quite a few threads about this..

I guess all you can do is try to give your own kids as many choices as possible and be aware of the messages they get about behaviour, aspirations etc. but tv and the media don't help...

I have 3 boys. Therefore if I ever have a girl I will make her wear pink till she's 21 and then she will have to get married in a huge pink dress with a cinderella carriage but not to Peter Andre.

í had mountains of barbies and dolls, and piles of dinky cars, lego and model aeroplanes. nothing was ever pushed on me. poor boys are the ones who have it bad, nobody lets a little boy play with a barbie doll but it's ok for a girl to be a bit of a tomboy

I reckon it is partly genetic......my girlies have alsway loved pink and fluff, despite me buying them lego and cars etc when they were smaller (along with doll too).

Boys equally are very loud and will make anything possible into a gun (even a barbie with her legs at a right angle to her boddy, and then shooting out the top of her head[bemused emoticon][and despair too]!!

My boys do ballet tho along with the girls, so we are trying to make them as unisex in all ways as poss (and DH will take them all to the golf driving range too before any of you ask if the girls do other sports too). I even have pics somewhere of DS1 playing footy in a tutu, and DS2 trying to breastfeed a baby annabelle doll.....

psychomum... hold on to those pics until their 18th birthday

Barbie doll legs are also very suitable for teething as ds found out to dd's dismay . But she was so sweet and 'allocated' ds 1 Barbie he was allowed to chomp on. Isn't she sweet? if she wants to be ;)