Toys and TV for 3 year old girl

[Doublegloucester]

Hello, am after some advice as my 3 year old seems convinced girls only like pink, not yellow, green etc, and somehow knows what a Barbie is! Gutted.

Please could people suggest good gender-neutral toys I could get her, especially ones with a more stem or coding-type focus? Have seen magnatiles, which look good but not cheap.

Re dolls, she has a Lottie, who I thought was ok but expensive for what you get. Any alternatives?

Non-pink playsets?

If anyone knows anywhere you can buy disabled dolls from, that would be great too.

Also, any suggestions of DVDs with female action heroes? She likes paw patrol and go-jetters but limited female representation...

Thanks for any help!!

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I think her believing girls only like pink and have to play with certain toys is the issue rather than her liking them herself. In my opinion all toys are "gender neutral" as there's no reason any girl or boy can't play with any of them. You could get her a range of toys in the freedom of home and see what she enjoys playing with; I used to love cars, constructive things, generally giving all my toys characters which they were perpetually in with my brother

This isn't what you asked but this book and some similar could be good: www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Girls-Are-Best-Sandi-Toksvig/1862304297?tag=mumsnetforum-21

My DD loves the Tara Binns books. They are like a modern female Mr Ben who tries on costumes and becomes different professions like Dr, engineer etc. and solves problems Paw Patrol style. They are by Lisa Rajan and Eerika Omiyale. I also change sexes to female for any neutral looking characters in books eg animals.

I am counting myself lucky that so far DD hasn't absorbed any of these messages. Her favourite toys are a wooden Brio style train, a duplo doll's house, wooden food you can slice, a marble run and wooden animals that play endless games of hide and seek. She also has a neutral coloured Dr kit that she loves. She has a baby doll but luckily has expressed no knowledge of Barbie yet! We don't have anything particularly technical so don't know about that but she enjoyed watching her dad building his old Lego technic digger and helicopter and loves playing with them and learning what all the levers cogs etc do.

Mighty Girl has some good suggestions. They have recently shown themselves to be supportive of gendered childhood (featuring a transgender girl), which disappoints me personally. But there are still some good resources on their website.

At 3, I would focus on being outdoors as much as possible rather than toys. Let her get dirty, muddy, exhausted.

One of those boards where you make pictures by hammering in coloured pegs
Cork board, hammer and nails
Pot of water and a paintbrush. Paint the house/path/road/wherever outside
Conker drill (we have one like this bought in Germany www.jako-o.de/produkte-basteln-saisonales-basteln-bastelbedarf-herbst-filz-und-holz-kastanien-bohrer-nussknacker-jako-o--682541.html )

Some of the really old Sesame Street episodes are great.
Dora the Explorer
Try Common Sense Media for film suggestions

My dd is 4 and absolutely loves anything pink and princess, she has expressed an interest in make up and pretends to put lipstick and blusher on. I have no idea where she's got it from because it's basically the opposite of me. I never wear make up and am not very girly at all. She's also come out with lines such as "is that toy for boys" when an advert comes on the tv. Obviously I explain that toys can be for anyone as long as you enjoy playing with them but who knows if that message is sinking in or not.

I don't mind her liking what she likes. I don't stop her from playing with those things (although she doesn't have any pretend make up). But I do try to encourage more variety. She does enjoy Lego Duplo and other more 'neutral' activities to but pink is sort of like her first love for some reason. I try to avoid buying the 'pink' version of toys where possible.

She has a birthday coming up and one of her main presents is a set similar to Magformers but much cheaper. Amazon is a good place to look for STEM toys, there are usually cheaper versions of the main brands which are just as good if not better quality.

I follow The Dad Lab on Facebook and Instagram he has some excellent science-y ideas and activities as well as toy recommendations. He has cute dc as well which is a bonus!

Thanks for the ideas :-)

My dd also had a preference for pink and purple despite my buying any other colour clothes when I could.In the end I just went with it.She is now a teen and just coming out of her "any colour as long as it's black"phase.
I have a lot of photos of her that aged dressed in pink and covered in mud.They love bugs etc at that age and being outside with a trowel and wheelbarrow.

Big bucket of duplo. I have a pink-loving boy (and a couldn't care less about colour boy) and the duplo is loved by everyone (I've even been caught mucking about of an evening). Then I just make sure there's a bit of everything - cars, dolls, paints, balls etc. so they can play with whatever takes their fancy on a particular day.

TV-wise - stick to cbeebies - really is the best of the worst (although DS1 when about 5 did rather impress the doctor looking in his ear when he looked at her desk and announced in an imperious manner 'that, is an otoscope' - so Doc McStuffins I definitely have a soft spot for - plus she's a girl, there's a fair bit pink/purple but it's actually pretty good on lots of things now that I think about it - your daughter might approve, although you'll have the theme song in your head for life)

Peg+cat and the magic school bus are good. Might be on Netflix or amazon prime. They are occasionally. Check YouTube if not

My Little Pony actually isn't bad, considering its pastel colours and twee look. Because pretty much all the characters are female, girls can choose which one they like best, rather than being funnelled into liking e.g. Skye because she's the girl pup.
They have
Rainbow Dash - the fast sporty competitive pony
Applejack - the down-to-earth strong hardworking pony
Pinkie Pie - the crazy party-loving pony
Twilight Sparkle - the one who's good at magic but solves problems by looking things up in books
Rarity - the creative fashion-loving pony
Fluttershy - the animal-loving pony

There are also a couple of princess ponies, and Twilight becomes a princess in later series, but it's a title you have to earn.

They solve problems, defeat evil monsters and learn lessons about friendship.

I also change sexes to female for any neutral looking characters in books eg animals.

I also do this instead of the default 'he'. And in some stories where there is an active male lead I will just swop it for female lead.
I especially try to do this when it's a funny or villainous character. So not just about seeing female characters being nice and kind, or good, or super competent above all the others, though that's important too.

We were given a box of vintage kids' books from the DGPs and these are fun to read but (since my DC can't read yet) I change a lot of the content to make it less sexist.

TV: also Clifford the big red dog, agree usually most content on CBeebies is good and I appreciate the lack of adverts. Thanks for the tip about My little pony- will check that out.
As an eg Peppa pig and Max and Ruby are not great on gender stuff so I tend to avoid those.

Brilliant, thank you everyone, lots of great ideas.

I have a 10 year old , and I read these threads with mild amusement.

With the boys...They can like pink if they want to wear dresses if they want to ..

When it comes to girls there seems to be an active push away from anything pink.. I do think there is too much pink for example why does a cash till need to be pink, however if pink gets a girl building with lego who wouldn't then great.

My DS had a pink doll and pushchair despite loving trains, cars and very sterotypical boys. Went through the pink is awful stage now quite likes a bit of pink on clothing.

For me it is about allowing them to explore something. give them both, I do remember sisters playing at our house when they were young. One loved playing with my son's trains, the other wouldn't touch anything unless it was doll type toys.

Happyland usually do a disabled child within their sets, and build a bear used to do wheelchairs , no idea if they still do.

Mine is a mix of princess dresses and mud, diggers, slugs. In fact, had to rescue a snail from the pocket of her the rainbow dress she has refused to take off for 4 days in a row. You get great paint and glitter glue sets from WH Smith which are much less messy than pots of paint. They can be artistic and messy but there's still sparkle. A toy stable or zoo is a nice alternative or addition to a dolls house. Pretty dresses can come in different colours too.

noblegiraffe excellent synopsis of MLP! DD and her friends all seem to have a favourite that they can relate to.

I have a DD and a DS so there's a range of plastic tat in various colours here. They play with it all equally. DS is 2 and loves pink more than DD ever did!

MLP are great! They live in a matriarchal collective where male ponies are used for their labour

I also edit male pronouns heavily. And all animals are female. "Look at the squirrel. Where's she going?"

First page of MLP equestria girls. MLP didn't just sell out they made full on wank fodder for bronies. Also has anyone else noticed that MLP "friendship is magic" went on a diet with this incarnation? Their faces are thinner and their already huge eyes, even more huge.

If you click the link you'll see someone has helpfully drawn the purple one with her hands down her pants and an anime version of them in lingerie. Definitely make sure you don't let your kids alone with youtube looking for MLP stuff

The actual Ponies are good, not so much the equestria girls!