Knew it might happen... Sad it has (DD not conforming to gender norms)

[Aroundtheworldin80moves]

DD turned 7 recently. She is obsessed with dinosaurs, and wants to be a Paleontologist or Explorer when she grows up.... Or a cheerleader. All in all, she's just an average 7yo girl with her own likes and dislikes.

For Christmas she got a dinosaur lunch bag, school bag and water bottle. She loves them. Was excited to take them to school.

I had the lunch bags out yesterday. She looked at it sadly and told me how some of the boys had been teasing her, saying it must be her brothers or how she must think she's a boy. She is rather strong willed (i.e. vocal and bossy, I know her bad bits!) and tells them that girls can like dinosaurs too. They were even learning about Mary Anning in lessons at the time.

We work so hard to let our children develop their own likes and dislikes... And then they get nonsense like this over a lunchbox. She's chosen a new school bag... With more dinosaurs on (the last one is too small for Yr3) .

It’s so sad. The gender stereotyping is way way worse these days than when I was growing up in the 70s and boys and girls were pretty much the same.
No wonder dysphoria has become a problem

@Coconutmeg

It’s so sad. The gender stereotyping is way way worse these days than when I was growing up in the 70s and boys and girls were pretty much the same. No wonder dysphoria has become a problem

My experience was opposite, it's worse now for sure but when I was growing up adults would persist in labelling non conforming girls as Tom boys. I used to get told off at my girls school for climbing trees, not because it was dangerous but because 'it's not what the sort of girls we have here do.'

when I was growing up adults would persist in labelling non conforming girls as Tom boys

Not to derail the thread, but nowadays the non conforming girl would be labelled by some people as trans and asked if she has not considered puberty blockers..

It’s so sad. The gender stereotyping is way way worse these days than when I was growing up in the 70s and boys and girls were pretty much the same
No wonder dysphoria has become a problem

I grew up in the 80s and 90s. Schools were highly sexist places. Both my dds find it bizarre I wasn't allowed to wear trousers and girls had go wear pe knickers in primary school.

However I do think to a degree kids could deal with it back then . We hated wearing skirts but it was what we had to do and we got on with it. And we were able to articulate why we felt it was unfair.

We also sometimes had to put on dresses or whatever for birthdays and special events. We hated that too but grinned and beared it and changed when we got home.

Between then and now though somehow sooooo much importance has been placed on clothing and other stereotypes and the ability to question or debate them has been lost. Kids and adults have become so fragile that their whole identity apparently is dependant on things they arent allowed to wear or do. And deviation medicalised.

Incredibly worrying that children like yours op and mine too ( dd2 who constantly corrected the man of the match talk at football club and reminded the coach there were girls here. And who tells anyone who questioks her t shirt or her shoes that they arent boys shoes they are anybodys shoes) are somhow the rarities and not what used to be the norm tbh.

Wish we could know what changed.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s. Schools were highly sexist places. Both my dds find it bizarre I wasn't allowed to wear trousers and girls had go wear pe knickers in primary school.

I agree. My first job in the late 80's all women had to wear skirts. End of. Cost me a lot in tights.

@KatherineJaneway

I grew up in the 80s and 90s. Schools were highly sexist places. Both my dds find it bizarre I wasn't allowed to wear trousers and girls had go wear pe knickers in primary school.

I agree. My first job in the late 80's all women had to wear skirts. End of. Cost me a lot in tights.

Same here, until I started putting tights on my expenses claims (all laddered when I was on site on business). The H&S legislation that came in in 1992 was great help.

DD always wanted to ride horses and drive tractors as a small child.
Yesterday she drove to a show in the horsebox lorry, competed on one of her horses, and then spent the afternoon/evening bringing in hay from field driving the tractor.
I wouldn't rule out your DD being a builder, could be a very useful occupation.

@KnitFastDieWarm

he gets called a girl and a baby at school, and last year got pushed to ground and kicked and punched by the other boys in his class

this breaks my heart . I want to give your lovey boy a big hug.

GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal‘s DS - you keep liking what you like, it’s far better to be an interesting grownup than a popular kid. Pink and sparkles are for EVERYONE, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise x

Thank you. This is basically what I've told the school - no, I will not tell him to "toughen up", I want my kind, gentle boy to grow up to be a kind, gentle man , because the world needs more of them.

Tell her to tell the boys that a) the some of the first Dino bones were found by a woman and particularly dinosaur poos b) check out Dino Dana as she's cool AS.

(Mary Anning: Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaurr* skeleton; the first two nearly complete plesiosaurr* skeletons; the first pterosaurr* skeleton located outside of Germany; and fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolitess, known as bezoarr stones at the time, were fossilised faeces. She also discovered that belemnitee* fossils contained fossilised ink sacss* like those of modern cephalopodss. When geologist Henry De la Bechee painted Duria Antiquiorr*, the first widely circulated pictorial representation of a scene from prehistoric life derived from fossil reconstructions, he based it largely on fossils Anning had found, and sold prints of it for her benefit.)

In all seriousness, tell the teacher that boys are displaying sexist bullying towards her and you'd like to see the policy for this, and what they're going to do to tackle it.

I was very 👀 at a music group for my boy toddler recently.

He loves dinosaurs as his brother does. (Because I did massively) but it was very odd how so many of the girls reacted to a Dino themed session. I've noticed for a while that theres a lot more girls that boys anyway. 50/50 in the baby classes but by the 3-5s it's mostly girls.

But then how many were genuinely scared of soft toy Dinos. I did query how many had a dinosaur toy.