Even though the third week isn’t over yet, the discussion we had today about childhood toys was pretty interesting to me. Be discussed how blue symbolizes a baby boy and pink symbolizes a baby girl. What happens after that? What kind of toys do boys and girls traditionally play with? We had a few people share, however, when I was a kid, I always wanted the little plastic football equipment kit. Growing up loving all Cleveland sports, I HAD to have a Bernie Kosar jersey, pants, shoulder pads, and helmet. However, for some reason I liked the Jacksonville Jaguars before they were even an official team. And once the Mark Brunell kit came out, I had to have it; jersey, pants, shoulder pads, helmet. Even though everything was plastic and so fake, I loved everything about it. I couldn’t play catch with my dad without wearing my equipment. Besides these little football equipment packages, I was all about G.I. Joe and remote control cars. At some point, I even liked making model cars. However, I have a sister, and she would never touch my toys, just like I would never touch hers. She was all about Barbie and the many things you had to buy her. She had a Barbie house, car, clothes, accessories, and friends. I guess I was all about getting multiple toys while my sister wanted more crap for Barbie.
Thinking about these toys now, I wasn’t forced to like these toys just like my sister wasn’t forced to like Barbie. We got these toys because we “had to have them” and that’s the kind of stuff we wanted to do. A good question to ask yourself is, why is it that I wanted these masculine toys at such a young age while my sister just wanted to play with Barbie? At the age of five and younger, did we know boys “should” play with sports toys and cars while girls “should” play with Barbie?
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Your sister probably didn't think the Barbie stuff she wanted was "crap" (as you described it). I don't know why children seem to have preferences, but it probably has something to do with what they see their friends getting. I remember when I was in 6th grade and some of my friends got "heels," and I just had to have them!! I also remember building model airplanes with my dad. There are definitely a variety of socializing influences in our lives!
ReplyDeleteI think that young children are alot smarter and more observant than we believe them to be. I have a 4 year old neice that is very tall for her age. I asked her if she wanted to grow up and play basketball and she said, "No, I want to be a model like the girls mommy watches on TV." Little kids are aware of the things they see people doing and when they see people they look up to doing female things they think thats what they shuld like and be doing. I also think there is alot of pressure put on them to conform to gender. I have a cousin that is 7 and loves to play basketball and wear tennis shoes and sports jerseys because her father does. Her 1st grade teacher called her mother and told her that she thought she might be a lesbian. This is so ridiculous that someone would even put a child that young in a category like this because she likes sports and she's a tomboy but people do it all the time and kids also realize that.
ReplyDeleteI also think it is interesting that boys and girls are just brought up in different ways. When I was a child everyone of my toys were sport related, or masculine. I had almost all of the nerf guns, and I would always get footballs and basketball as gifts. I think it is funny that there was a boys version of the easy bake oven, and I had it. I would make creepy crawlers instead of brownies. Another way that I was brought up masculine was the color of my room. My parents painted it blue when I moved into it.
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