Julian is a mermaid

[2in2022twoyearson]

I'll admit, I've not read the book, but my DD (6yo) is reading it at school. Is it a good one? Anything to be wary of...if the message is, he's a boy, who dresses up as a mermaid, but still a boy, that's ok. I think I won't ask about it, just see if she brings it up.

I think it's the wider cultural context that makes me uncomfortable.

Brill! In which case, definitely get a copy of My Body Is Me for home and one for school - it's loads better than Julian Is A Mermaid anyway.

Other books if you read chapter books at home:

• Woof by Allan Ahlberg (boy inadvertently turns into dog, fun and peril, is still boy really)
• Bill's New Frock by Anne Fine (boy inadvertently wears dress, learns stuff, is still boy)

Another sideways thought: how about encouraging dressing-up at home? My children are teens and young adults now, but we always had a proper old-fashioned dressing-up box at home mainly populated with stuff from jumble sales. None of my kids' friends had dressing-up boxes at home, and it was always the first thing visiting children got out for all of the primary school years. Impending World Book Day is a case in point: you can pretend to be who you like, you're still you underneath!
(Reckon I was the only mum at school who loved World Book Day - I loved helping my kids really thoroughly read their characters and work out costumes and accessories. I do miss those days!)

Sadly none of these ideas have helped my offspring, who range from thinking it's bonkers to completely stewed in this ideology, but hopefully gender ideology will have done a runner by the time your little one is much older. 🙏

Follow up on this. My daughter brought up this book in conversation about what she's doing on school. Now they've finished reading it they're planning writing their own story based on it. DD story is Max is an engineer. All about making an alarm clock that makes breakfast. She read this in her Lego gadgets book and has been wanting to make one at home, I said I wouldn't know how. At a science museum recently someone told her she'd be a good enjeneer and she was happy about that. They do have a lot of girl power type books and topic at school eg the first woman to fly a plane. I guess this book is for balence. On top of the girls in STEM, they have boys into fashion. But she still thinks an enjeneer should be a boy. 😂

Thanks for the follow up, I'm glad the Julian book went..swimmingly and caused as few ripples as possible😄
Isn't it a pity though that your DD thinks that engineers have to be boys?

But that's not unusual, as this 2024 article from.. that well-known source of data on gender stereotyping, Stoke On Trent Live (it just came up first on Google) shows:
Eye-opening video shows gender stereotyping among children when it comes to careers - Stoke-on-Trent Live

It just goes to show that the battle to let little kids just be whatever they want to be, rather than what they should be as a stereotyped boy or girl, is far from won.

A clock that makes breakfast sounds wonderful, if your DD makes one, I'm first on the waiting list to buy it😄
Seriously, though - I hope she gets a chance to get hands-on and make lots of interesting things from Lego and kits and things like that. It's great for little girls to learn how to handle screwdrivers and bolts and nuts and that kind of thing early - useful skills if they go for a 'non-traditional' job later, as was my case, or even just doing jobs around the house.

Yes, so even though she loves Lego, including gadgets toy and her auntie is an enjeneer and granny a maths teacher lots of other female role models in STEM she still wants to be a childminder when she grows up and loves every lesson except maths, when we do maths at home she loves it. When I quized her it's because other children (a boy) doesn't like maths.

She made her own gadget with Lego gadgets book, I said are you an enjeneer. She said yes then paused and said I'll teach toddlers about gears and cogs when I'm a childminder. Faceplant lol.

Lol! Kids say the darndest things... 😂

It just goes to show the power of outside influences, doesn't it?🙄

I always think of accents as an example of this - parents could have the strongest Dublin accent in the entire world, but if the family moves to Cork, the kids will develop a Cork accent ASAP in order to fit in with their peers, not with their parents!

Your DD is lucky to have a mam/mum [delete according to your accent..] who is thinking deeply about this, and lucky to have so many good role models, and I'm sure she'll eventually get the message that boys and girls can be anything they darn well want when they grown up!😄

I think young children development like to have stereotypes to help form their identity, she does think of the boy girl stereotypes. She should grow from there. She told me she thinks she's part boy, part girl because she likes and dislikes a range of things that are for boys and girls. So because of all the trans aimed at children I want her to be clear she is a girl, so I reinforce this. She enjoys wearing dresses but doesn't like unicorns. Also not very sporty or footbally but like cars and gadgets and is friends with boys and girls. She'll get there eventually. Haha.

Funny you say about accents - my (undiagnosed but assumed)autistic cousin spoke queens English while his younger sister had the local accent.

Ooh don't get me started on accents, I love them! And this is really fascinating - so the autistic child didn't 'absorb' the local accent the way children tend to..
But I digress and derail!

All the best with your DD, 2in2022twoyearson, you're doing her such a favour by showing her that she's not two things, she's one great little girl with a range of talents and interests from all across the 'stereotype' spectrum.
And with a supportive and thoughtful mam

My DH works with autistic children and they often take on accents from TV eg memorising scripts. Often it's American voices.

It was one of his many quirks. I guess my autistic cousin spoke like his mum so maybe they don't relearn and adapt to languages once he's learnt them.

I often wonder how popular mermaids/men would be in mythology etc if they were the other way round - fish top half and human bottom?

Is Aquaman a 🧜‍♂️? Because Jason Momoa is quite fetching and definitely a man 😀