Little triumphs.

[Miffer]

Something lovely happened the other day.

As I have said before on these boards my DH does more than half the housework.

Anyway the other day due to a bit of a crisis my mum had to whisk the kids off to hers to spend the night on a school night. My adult sister still lives with her and my adult brother was also staying at hers that evening.

My youngest DS pulled his school shirt out of his bag to see if it needed ironing (he's 11 and can barely turn the telly over without starting a fire). My mum proclaimed that it did, my DS sighed and having the choice of all three adults proceeded to hand it to my brother. My brother would be the least likely of the three to do any sort of ironing and my mum had been the one to point it out so I am left with the conclusion that he picked my brother as to him it's men that do the ironing. (Sadly my mum ended up ironing the shirt).

Sure he is only 11 but as we all know gender stereotyping starts younger than that so I was pleased to know what goes on in the home can have some impact.

I know it's just a little thing but it was nice and gave me some hope that we can slowly break the cycle.

So does anybody else have little triumphs to share?

By the way, in terms of actually ironing for the kids it's pretty evenly split between the two of us. We don't have "ironing" in our house in the commonly used sense.

Oldest mainly irons his own clothes now with the exception of his uniform. DH and I both iron our own individual clothes which (due to my savvy clothing choices) works out as him using the ironing board at least once a week whereas I use it, for my own stuff, probably once every two months.

My DS is a beaver and has badges that need sewn onto his sweater. He said "we have to go to granda's to get my badges sewn" because neither mummy nor granny can sew but granda is ace at it

Brilliant!

Dd(7) and her friend were in our garden today and found some creepy crawlies under a stone. Dd referred to them as females. Friend said "why do you think they are girls?" Dd replied, "why do you think they are boys?"

When my ds 2 was little he asked me why when daddy made fish fingers they are yellow. I said they are supposed to be yellow and he said oh its just that when you make them they are brown! Needless to say dh does all the cooking in our house!

One of my brothers now challenges his friends if they spout sexist nonsense and tells me about it when he sees me later on. Once not long after I'd started having discussions about this kind of thing with him I overheard him saying whilst he and some chums were round at our house "I'll go and tell my sister you said that" about some remark. I'm glad I am seen as the household's feminist enforcer but also that he's taken our conversations on board. I discuss quite a few issues with him now.

My dad has also listened to a lot of what I've said to him and resolved to be more aware not least at work of sexism and try to ensure no women are subject to it on his watch, though this thread might be about younger people! Domestic tasks are shared and not done depending on sex in our household, though this would be my mum's triumph (and dad's, I suppose) rather than mine.