i dont mind being a housewife and stay at home mum but i'd love for my daughter to know she can be different to the usual "house wife in the kitchen" if she wants to( i think i was a little scared to be different to my mum as thats all i knew)but its like toy makers are puting baby girls in there place by the toys they make! i mean my daughter has thousands of toys but they are either toy babies with toy prams or little toy kitchens-dishes and all, or theres mops brooms and vacuum cleaners, dustpans and pretend cooking appliences little shopping trollies with pretend food,little toy washing machines with toy clothes lines! i mean i feel like im telling her that this is what females do obviously i dont have to buy those things for her but apart from books and blocks and puzzels which she has lots of its really all you can buy for little girls!!
2007-02-07 00:00:26 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Parenting
You choose what she plays with! Our daughter has musical toys, animal toys (a puppy she can pull on a string), telephones, blocks, etc. Yes, she has dolls and stuffed toys and, yes, she is probably going to have a toy broom and vacuum and such. Personally, I can't wait to get her a toy stroller for her dolls.
However, she is also going to have a toy lawnmower, when the weather is agreeable. She already has a Tonka truck just waiting for her to get old enough to play with it. Another toy waiting for her is a ride-on John Deere tractor!
Our daughter's favorite thing to play with is one of her Daddy's duck calls!
You are the one who decides what ideas your daughter gets about women. You are the one who decides what ideas your daughter gets about what potential her life holds.
I am a "traditional" homemaker. My husband and I happen to believe that it is a woman's place to tend to the home and the family. Is that the only view that my daughter (and any future children, daughters or sons) is going to get about what women are and what we can do? Not by any means!!! My husband and I are the people who decide what ideas our children are exposed to.
I am proud to show my daughter how her father and I interact. We generally follow very defined, probably considered "old-fashioned" gender roles. I was very proud to see my daughter pick up our broom and try to sweep the kitchen floor a while back! I am also incredibly proud to see my daughter sit down with her Daddy and watch an old western on tv. I am very proud to see my daughter try to help me make the beds and get excited when I reach out to her and tell that it's time to go get some chores done. I am also very proud when our daughter picks up "her" duck call and starts quacking!
Listen, just because we are stay at home moms does not mean that our children's views on womenhood have to stop in the kitchen! No, we're not surgeons, no we're not astronauts, no we're not race car drivers... but that doesn't mean that we couldn't be or that our daughters couldn't be! We do not have to limit our children's views of the world according to how we live! My husband and I want our daughter to grow up with a certain value system. I will be over the moon proud if someday our daughter decides that her "career" should be family and home and she makes the sacrifices to make that happen. She will also know that I will be incredibly proud if she chooses to be a construction worker or Supreme Court Justice!
If you look at the toys in the toys store, you will see very few gender specific labels! Yes, there are pink aisles and there are blue aisles. There are aisles where everything is Barbie and there are aisles where everything is G.I. Joe. Does that mean that your daughter can not play with things she finds in those blue aisles? No one at the toy store is going to stop you if you want to buy your daugther a toy truck instead of another dolly!
You choose what she plays with... choose to give her things to expand her horizons! Yes, let her play with dolls and toy kitchens. But why stop there? Let her play with toy hammers and cars and doctor kits!
Yes, you are the first view of womanhood that your daughter is going to see. How she sees the rest of womanhood is up to you!
Good luck!
2007-02-07 00:26:28 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The way I see it is, toys are just that, toys. I have 2 daughters myself, ages 5 and 2. No matter how hard I try to get them to pick out other toys when we're in the store, (like hot wheels or something) all they want is baby dolls, brooms, vacuums, kitchen sets, princess cell phones, easy bake ovens, etc. I'm starting to think that that's just what little girls want. Before my youngest was born, I even took the approach of buying my oldest a toy tool set (skill saw, drills, hammer, etc.) thinking she might want to use the tools like daddy uses. Didn't work. In fact I don't think she ever touched them, just wasn't interested. But god forbid she looses her baby or her little kitty, lol. So to make a long story short, I guess the point i'm trying to get at is that as long as she's playing with something, and using her imagination to the fullest, there's no reason why it can't be a vacuum or a kitchen set. Try getting her some "boy" style toys and see if she likes them. If so you just broadened the choices for future toys, I guess.
2007-02-07 01:10:19 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I guess I'm a minority here, because I don't think toy dogs should be placed in homes with children under 18. Kids, even teenagers, can be loud, can move quickly and startle small dogs - who are naturally scared of a lot of things because of their size - and can have "mean minutes" when they do things to torment the dog and consider it fun. Larger breed dogs shouldn't be placed in homes with kids under about 12, because while the "mean minutes" thing doesn't change, the larger breed dogs can take louder noises, they usually aren't afraid of much, and it takes a lot more to startle them. I'm sorry if you are 8 years old and desperately want a toy dog. You may be very gentle, considerate, and responsible, but if you are, you're the exception rather than the rule. Thanks for asking!
2016-03-29 09:17:23 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just because she is a girl doesn't mean that you have to shy away from things that are more boyish, like building sets, dinosaurus, trains (my daughter loves trains), and the like. Another thing I love is LeapFrog. They make toys of different learning toys for all different ages. We have a ton.
Another thing you can do is expose her to different kinds of things and let her know, that she can be anything she wants to be when she grows up. My daughter watches car racing with her grandfather. She says that she wants to be a racer when she grows up! Also let her know that if she wants to see can be a housewife too and there is nothing wrong with that!
2007-02-07 06:36:35 · answer #4 · answered by Aumatra 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a reason why manufacturers make these toys....little girls like them!!!
I'm a stay at home mom, too. My oldest son likes any building and science toy. My younger son likes to help me cook and clean. My infant daughter could conceivabley go either way. A friend of mine refuses to buy her children "violent" toys, and her sons make swords and guns from sticks they pick up in the yard. My parents bought me dolls, I played with my brother's GI Joe, and my dad's old "Farmboy" toys. (And despite being a stay at home mom, I'm still a tomboy.)
We can't manufacture our children by the toys we surround them with, no matter how much we think those toys influence them. They won't play with something just because its there, they will play with it because it interests them.
2007-02-07 00:15:26 · answer #5 · answered by mamasquirrel 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When I was young I had alot of trucks that I played with aswell. I loved them, especially when I would build cities with blocks and make roads, houses stores, parking spots etc. In the summer I had a sandbox and would bring them out there or build sand castles, I had a paint set, a water activity centre with boats and animals and had a variety of sport related toys like golf, baseball, soccerballs and a basket ball set! There is no toy out there that either sex can't play with as long as it safe for there age! Hope this gave you some ideas! Either way though, as long as her toys promote her being creative and she enjoys them, I'm sure you can teach her all about her options in other ways as she grows up!
2007-02-07 00:14:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
If you are opposed, cross the gender lines! I babysat a 5 year old boy who was OBSESSED with Brat dolls. Loved them. He would play with them for hours, dress them up, etc etc. Then again, he also loved his hotwheels and his leapfrog.
Little girls are trained to be girls and boys are trained to be boys by society from an early age. Unfortunately it doesn't matter too much what she plays with, once she hits school or elementary school or HIGH school she will be forced to confrom to her role as a female in order to fit in.
I suggest just making sure your daughter has lots of higher learning material and don't worry too much about her role as a girl. All this means is that when she moves out she will be able to take care of her house, dress nicely AND be an engineer or a brain surgeon or whatnot. Keep the focus on education rather than gender standards.
2007-02-07 00:51:42 · answer #7 · answered by bpbjess 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
my son used to have a toy vaccuum cleaner, broom, and he used to have this play kitchen when he was 2. my husband does alot of housework too so he is not just seeing me doing everything.
there is plenty of other toys out there that u can get her. try a radio remote control cars, balls, figurines, arts and crafts.
2007-02-07 00:24:20 · answer #8 · answered by Miki 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why are you buying those toys if you don't like what they represent? There are lots of educational toys on the market.
2007-02-07 00:23:18 · answer #9 · answered by Baw 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Any toy that enhances learning so that as she grows older she has the skills to do whatever she likes, be it a housewife or a mechanic!
2007-02-07 00:13:13 · answer #10 · answered by DreamDevil 1 · 3⤊ 0⤋