Seems Mums don't play with Lego...

[EduCated]

...at least not according to one of this week's MN competitions

Let Dad relax and have some fun, quality time with the kids. Grab a box of LEGO and see where their imaginations take them. With the LEGO brick you can build anything your imagination desires, as the latest TV ad from LEGO shows.

LEGO has been covering playroom floors since 1949 and today it is still the number one kids construction toy. So popular is LEGO worldwide, that there are now 80 LEGO bricks to every person in the world! Why not challenge Dads and kids to see what they could build with 80 LEGO Bricks?

To celebrate the joy of LEGO, four Mumsnetters can win a LEGO Build & Play Box. The children are going to love it and Dad's will feel a sense of childhood nostalgia as they get back to playtime basics and build with the kids.

If Dad's are after some building inspiration, check out the latest TV ad from LEGO, tissues at the ready.



I mean, really? Are single mums allowed to enter, or is having a Dad in the house mandatory?

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

I do all the Lego in our house - before I had my own DC, I spent every Christmas building my nephews' Lego sets. I grew up in a house of 3 girls that was full of Lego. This gendering of it is a recent and unwanted development.

[samandi]

Who the fuck wrote that? "Dads" does not need an apostrophe. It doesn't need to be capitalised either. And "kids construction toys" should have an apostrophe. Christ. But that's by the by. The whole premise that it's only "Dad's" who play with Lego would have me spitting fury if I was a mother. What a godawful piece of shite.

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

OTOH - in advertising world 'Mums' literally do everything else: wash clothes, make packed lunches, go to Iceland, take their kids to school, buy food and toys, do the housework, take kids to the doctor, look after them when sick etc etc.

But hey Mums, you're worth it, you're irreplaceable, you're one of a kind, you're special - who else could do what you do? I mean WHO ELSE?

[southeastastra]

i love lego dp hates it and i was in the lego club when i was little and i won a lego design competition in the express.

am most miffed

[KarlosKKrinkelbeim]

I am intrigued by the idea of being "good at lego". What constitutes being good at lego? You either like lego or you don't. As it happens, I do. I also like drinking, swearing, arguing and being competitive. Fuck you and your gender stereotypes, lego bastards

[CaptChaos]

My DB loves Lego, would buy extortionately expensive sets for DS (who has ASD and Lego was his 'thing' for ages), just so that he could build them for with him.

The hideous family secret is that all the Lego he played with as a child was bought for me, by my Dad. It was only after he left that DB was given it. Maybe my 'D'M felt I would grow a penis, or not be able to 'catch' a nice husband if I could construct a bridge out of plastic building blocks?

This competition blurb sucks, BTW.

As do the apostrophes!

[tribpot]

EduCated - no, I am amazed to say that the Lego shop in Leeds is so enlightened that it is willing to hand out VIP cards even to the little ladies. Shockingly they also employ women as well - what is the world coming to?

[OrlandoWoolf]

In advertising world, dads play with their children (Think Lego and that Robinson's friend advert) whilst mums do the parenting stuff like food, cleaning, buying clothes etc.

[monkeywrench]

I'm also really getting the rage with all this pink lego boxes and lego friends crap, both DS and DD play with lego, DP is pretty crap at it, I, however, am FANTASTIC....i once built a tractor one handed for DS whilst BFing DD, without instructions, get me eh?

[NeverKnowinglyUnderstood]

lego is perhaps my favourite thing to play with with my boys.. I love building train sets with them as well.

[Ilovexmastime]

wtaf? this has pissed me right off. I spend more time playing with the lego than anyone else in our house (5-11pm one night last week!).

[LEMisafucker]

I am the lego-queen in this house, i put all the sets together no one else gets a look in. DP loves when i do the lego with DD as he has to play with her loads as i don't do imagination. I love lego.

[EBearhug]

I don't mind the general "Lego is a good way for a Dad to bond with his son" vibe of the TV ad because it is actually true

Except that it could be "Lego is a good way for a parent to bond with his or her child."

Lego and Meccano were the best toys.

[Wonderstuff]

I love Lego. Reading that gave me rage, disappointed with MN. Back in the 80s I wasn't aware that it was a boys toy, there was none of this pink crap, I'm sure mums and dads would have played with it in equal numbers.

I'm gutted dd is indifferent to Lego. Hoping ds will get it. If I win the comp I'll be playing by myself I suspect.

[bsc]

I fucking hate Lego Friends, makes me so

The one toy that had no need to be genderised.

What makes me even ier and is that Lego has seen a 25% increase in sales since they introduced it.

WHat kind of wankers wouldn't buy lego for girls before Friends was introduced?

Lego was both mine and DH's favourite toy as a child, and it is both my girl and my boy's favourite toy now. We don't have any pink pieces

[samandi]

Wonderstuff - Back in the 80s it WASN'T a boys' toy, so of course you wouldn't've been aware of it!

[bsc]

Oh- looked at the comp... we already have that box! We bought it at Legoland Windsor this summer

[woollyjo]

I have two sisters, no brothers and was bought lego by my mum, as I recall it was one of our fave toys. I have two dds and lego is constantly out and being requested (not lego 'friends', it is shite).

[HazeltheMcWitch]

I bought some pink bricks from that pick-a-brick thing in the lego store.

But - gasp! - for my DS. In my ongoing effort to make pink just another colour.

[Wonderstuff]

bsc the thing is that little girls are so aware of girls and boys toys that girls want 'girls' toys. I would be more than happy to buy any Lego for DD but she wants Friends. Other than Duplo, which is still reassuringly gender neutral most of the Lego sets have gender bias now, even Lego City has mainly male figures.

[Procrastinating]

Is lego friends easier to do than normal lego?

[TheDoctrineOfWho]

The phrase I hate most is, "Dad will feel a sense of childhood nostalgia..."

Even if you are trying to genderise Lego today so that you can sell Lego Friends, don't fucking retcon the "Lego is a toy for kids" out of history. 30 years ago, today's mums and dads were equally targeted as Lego users.

[Wonderstuff]

Lego friends is if anything slightly more fiddley than 'normal' Lego, the figures are designed differently and don't stick to bricks so have to be balanced.

[CatherineMumsnet]

Hi all, we're really sorry about this and completely see (and agree with) your point. We will flag it up to the relevant people, but as it's the weekend it may be a couple of days before we have a proper response for you.

Bear with us and keep the reports coming in, we do appreciate them.

[OrlandoWoolf]

I'm sure Mitchell and Webb could alter this advert to reflect how advertisers see the role of mums and dads with their children