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A slightly off-topic post to give you something to think about besides the fate of health care in America...
Recently my daughter's school hosted a parent education night focused on issues of gender and sexual identity. We talked about the different ways kids are teased, and discussed how we would handle different scenarios.
What would you do if, for example, your child wanted to buy a doll for a boy as a birthday present?
What would you do if you heard that some girls in your child's class wouldn't let another girl into the bathroom because they said she dresses like a boy?
The world would be a better place if all schools had meetings like this. And yet, I kept thinking, but I already know the answers. Buy the boy the doll (if that's what he really wants). Tell your child girls can wear anything they want and still be girls. Of course, the answers were much more nuanced and involved asking a lot of questions, and engaging your child in problem-solving. Things that I, in my impatience, have a tendency to forget.
- Ruby with her brother Jake, the "ballerino"
Frankly, I found myself feeling a little self-conscious. I have a boy and a girl (plus, as a lucky bonus, a stepdaughter), and while I might not be quite as on top of these things as some of the progressive Oakland/Berkeley moms I know, I do try to make sure our kids have equal access to fairy wands and toy trucks, and when Martha puts Jake's hair in pony tails or Ruby dresses him in a princess dress, everyone (including Jake, for the first five minutes, anyway) thinks it's cool.
But Jake still gravitates to the trucks, balls, and tools and because we won't buy him a toy gun of his own, he makes them out of Legos. Or a stick. Or his finger. Whereas Ruby and Martha, until recently, lived in Princess Central and a lot of their imagination play still involves fairies (that is, when they're not getting Jake to pretend to be their pet cat).
Have we failed in our gender-neutral conditioning? Are they simply hard-wired to choose pink chiffon over electric drills, and vice versa?
As you ponder this age-old question, I will leave you with two short videos to consider:
My daughter playing guitar:
My son playing guitar:
Original post from Working Moms Break
