anyone that knows me knows without a shadow of a doubt that i am not a girly girl. there are times that i wish i was, and there are times where i question why i am not and my sisters are, but still the fact remains that i am not, and at this point probably never will be.
which makes me wonder about the fate of my own daughter. with two older brothers, there are times that she's worn blue hand-me-downs. and there are times when i've gone shopping and really wanted to get her an outfit that i thought was totally adorable, even though it was definatly made for a boy. i am thankful that the "in style" now seems to be light pink and brown in some combination, because i can handle dressing her in a little bit of pink paired with something else. i don't think i could ever bring myself to dress her in something frilly and ruffly and glaringly pink from head to toe. it's just not my style, and unfortunately for fishie, it's not her's until she tells me otherwise.
if she gets older and decided that she's totally into princesses and wants to wear pink and bows and ribbons, i'll be ok with that. but right now i don't want to treat her like a baby doll, something to dress up and show off, i personally think that mentality is silly. unfortunately, there are some in my family that think that i am crazy for acting like that.
i don't feel the need to reinforce what i consider to be stereotypes. if fishie wants to dress in pink and play with dolls, i'm ok with that. if she wants to wear blue jeans and play with trucks, i say go ahead. for example, my boys had wanted a plastic tea set for christmas one year, which i was more than happy to get for them. sadly though, i lost out on that battle and they got a train set.
just because something is labeled for a boy or a girl doesn't mean that only a boy can play with boy things and only a girl can play with girl things. if it's something they're interested in and something that they enjoy doing, i say we should let kids explore and have fun and be creative. most importantly though, we should let them do what makes them happy and not worry about what society might say.
this line of thought always brings to mind what my hubby and i call the "billy elliot debate." billy elliot was a movie about a boy who's father signs him up for boxing lessons. in the same gym there is a ballet class. billy eventually desides that he'd rather dance then fight. there's much more to the movie than that, but the point that my hubby and i have discussed at length is the fact that eventually the father accepts the fact that dancing makes billy happy and he supports him, and we talk about what we would do if our children decided that they wanted to persue an activity that others might label "not for them."
thankfully, my hubby and i agree on this point, that we don't care what our children do or how they choose to live, as long as they are happy and healthy. not that we don't have hopes and dreams for them, but we know enough other people that have pushed their children into activities because it was something they wanted, not their kids wanted, and we don't ever want to be like that.
so what that i'm dressing up my little fishie as a dragon and not a princess this year? she's going to be the cutest little pink girl dragon ever, and i'm even dressing up as a mommy dragon to go with her. if she wants to be a princess next year, i'll buy the tiara. but if she wants to be a race car driver, i know where i can get a helmet.
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