Irritating article in the Guardian . . .

[Takver]

here. All these 'boys aren't at all like girls, they're just so different and physical etc etc' articles annoy the hell out of me. I just wonder WTAF these parents of boys think small girls actually are like.

Surely I'm not the only mother of a daughter who (a) likes dinosaurs (b) collects sticks (c) needs plenty of exercise every day otherwise causes utter havoc and (d) whittles swords for her playmobil children and dresses them in 'chainmail'. To be fair, some of these are starting to wear off now she's nearly 11 - she prefers dragons to dinosaurs, can exercise herself perfectly well, and makes bows & arrows rather than just collecting sticks.

Is it just me, or is it reasonable to think that this kind of attitude then leads on to the excuses for grown up men failing to do their fair share ('they just don't see it, they're different') and generally behaving in ways unsuitable for a civilised human being?

I had almost the exact same experience with my obstetrician. I took DD for her six week checkup and she was dressed in blue. There was another baby girl there at the same time. DD was asleep and anyway was always a bit lethargic due to being 5 weeks prem. The other baby was very alert and had lots of baby tricks already. The obstetrician looked at the other baby and said to both of us mothers - "you see, baby girls are always so much more advanced than boys". So he made me paranoid that my baby had some sort of developmental delay, mistook her gender even though I paid him a lot of money to deliver her and do her six week check up, and threw in some gender stereotyping all in one go!