Sunday, June 7, 2009
Sunday Night
This weekend, my son asked to watch fire trucks on you tube. Just like that: "Can I watch fire trucks on you tube?" So I guess he knows, even better than I do, that you tube with the repository of all things bizarre and everything you could wish to see. I'm so tired this Sunday night that I find this new development simply amazing. I know it's not, really, but still. Fire trucks on you tube.
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6 comments:
does your daughter also have love for firetrucks? our son is crazed over them at the moment (on our recent trip to rome a fireman picked him up and gave him a look aorund the truck - in italian! - and it was definitely 'the event' of his 3.5 year old life). and although leni is happy to play along when it involves sliding down poles at the park she's pretty much wrapped up in princesses and fairies at home. it is so weird to hear her commentary on my clothes and how there is not enough pink to make me more beautiful?! we are actually switching them to a new school after the summer and thinking that a more balanced gender environment in terms of kids (along with a male teacher) will bring new perspective ;)
Good luck on that more balanced gender perspective! Your kids sound just like mine. Elliot's fire truck love had waned for a while, but in the last 2 months it's back in full force -- its connected to Sept 11 and his 4-yr-old grappling with good guys/bad guys and death, which is a lot harder to write about than fire trucks on you tube...On good gender balancer for the 4.5 set- Princess Leia. She carries a gun. This is confusing in a good way. (my kids don't watch Star Wars but light sabres are a huge toy now -- they don't have one -- and they have 2 star wars books.) In any case, i actually buy more pink for myself now and find myself wondering if Helen will like what i'm wearing. I also play a lot of Free to Be You and Me......from what I can tell, though, at least for my kids, gender preferences, while reinforced by the culture, are pretty hard wired. I think and trust they'll start shifting and getting more nuanced as the kids get older.
My nieces, the older one especially, were complete pink fairy princesses for several years. The older one, though, who's about to turn 8, recently told my s-i-l that she's not just a "girly-girl" and was fine getting blue shoes (rather than pink or purple ones). I hadn't quite envisioned pink being a stage that ends, or at least tapers off, but apparently it does!
The end of pink *is* hard to imagine, but there it is at 8! The other day Helen asked specifically to wear a pair of jeans my mom got her (albeit festooned with hearts and flowers). I think it made it the fifth day she'd worn pants to school, but it was a change.....Elliot, my son, meanwhile, is very particular about his t-shirts. It's not just how they feel, it's how they look. He's a little like his dad that way....
i had to laugh about wondering if Helen will like your outfit! it's so true! sometimes i admire leni's wacky combinations (all various shades of pink of course - but the capri pants tucked into hello kitty knee socks? a trendsetter or a conscientious bike rider, i don't know). i'm sure you are right about the hardwired, but some more exposure can't hurt right?
Good golly I hope exposure helps! Free To Be You And Me really is great on this front....as for the Hello Kitty pedal pushers, well, as with some of Helen's outfits, we can only hope exposure helps on that front, too....
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