Family & Relationships9 mins ago
Would You Encourage Your Lad To Play With Barbie?
60 Answers
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Yep it's another belter frm the Limp dums!
Yep it's another belter frm the Limp dums!
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This is absurd.
As Mamyalynne correctly states, children will find their own level of play.
My 6 year old boy has had ample opportunity to play with his older sister's Barbie stuff, but has never shown any interest whatsoever. He would much rather be in the garden getting muddy, or inside playing with his army toys or shooting things with his Nerf guns. He is, therefore, a normal 6 year old boy.
To suggest encouraging boys to play with dolls will make them more caring is nonsense, and is an idea right up there on the 'complete cobblers' scale just next to the Canadian couple in the news a few years ago who were bringing their child up to be 'gender neutral'.
I never played with dolls - and I'd like to think I am a very caring and nurturing father.
As Mamyalynne correctly states, children will find their own level of play.
My 6 year old boy has had ample opportunity to play with his older sister's Barbie stuff, but has never shown any interest whatsoever. He would much rather be in the garden getting muddy, or inside playing with his army toys or shooting things with his Nerf guns. He is, therefore, a normal 6 year old boy.
To suggest encouraging boys to play with dolls will make them more caring is nonsense, and is an idea right up there on the 'complete cobblers' scale just next to the Canadian couple in the news a few years ago who were bringing their child up to be 'gender neutral'.
I never played with dolls - and I'd like to think I am a very caring and nurturing father.
Can someone explain please: the question's about whether boys and girls should be encouraged to choose toys without adult intervention. What has that go to do with the physical features of the person quoted in the source article?
Several people have had a right old go about a woman's face. I suggest this is nasty, cowardly, bullying behaviour. Proud of yourselves, are you?
Several people have had a right old go about a woman's face. I suggest this is nasty, cowardly, bullying behaviour. Proud of yourselves, are you?
I think you missed point AP. You wrote that we were further up the evolutionary scale for there to be the instictive differences between the genders that I described. Trying to get boys to act as one expects girls to act would prove otherwise. It's about understanding what is so, not being worried about anything.
I see nothing in Ms Swinson’s profile that qualifies her to advise on the way in which children are raised. Before she became an MP she studied Management and worked in marketing and public relations. When acquiring a job in a specific area, parliament appears to be the only place that requires no experience or specific qualifications. Why anyone would give the slightest credence to her guidance is a mystery.
Perhaps she qualifies as a parent herself?
The idea that children should be allowed to play with whichever toys they so choose is exactly the right one. This is slightly different from "encouraging" boys to play with dolls, I think, because that could translate into "pressuring" very easily. But of a boy points to a doll (Barbie or otherwise) and wants it then he should be allowed to have it, or at least not disallowed it on the sole grounds that it's a girls' toy.
The idea that children should be allowed to play with whichever toys they so choose is exactly the right one. This is slightly different from "encouraging" boys to play with dolls, I think, because that could translate into "pressuring" very easily. But of a boy points to a doll (Barbie or otherwise) and wants it then he should be allowed to have it, or at least not disallowed it on the sole grounds that it's a girls' toy.
Jim -you are assuming that children have the whole of Toys R Us in their living room to choose. Parents have a huge role in deciding what toys come into their homes. We have never allowed Barbie,Brats or other female toys, or male dolls that indoctrinate certain negative values or ambitions. My little pony was very popular in our house with our two girls and mechano and lego with the boys and girls . having said that we have no horse trainers or engineers in the family because of this lol!
Could the solution to that problem be to go toy shopping with your child in tow? This isn't always possible, without making an unpleasant scene for example, but if it is possible then I'd have thought it should be tried. Of course children shouldn't always be given what they want unconditionally, that just leads to spoilt brats, but if the young boy were able to choose between two toys of the same price and picked "the girls' one" then I can't see any reason for that wish not to be granted. And if they get bored of it later then, well, maybe there is a lesson in that for them not to make snap decisions.
The best way I'd have thought of putting it is that if a child expresses a particular wish for a toy that is not typically associated with their gender then it shouldn't be dismissed as "you can't play with that, it's a girls' toy" (or vice versa).
My Mum, who has worked in a creche for pretty much my entire lifetime, tells me that this sort of thing rarely comes up anyway, and without encouragement young girls tend to go for the dolls etc whereas boys rush for the cars (although what went on at the children's homes is anyone's guess). When it does come up, though, the worst thing that can be done is surely to discourage the child from playing with the toys they prefer and forcing toys they don't want upon them.
This works the other way, of course -- it would be equally wrong to suggest to a boy that he should play with a doll if he's not shown any interest in it, just to show yourself as a parent capable of challenging traditional gender roles.
The best way I'd have thought of putting it is that if a child expresses a particular wish for a toy that is not typically associated with their gender then it shouldn't be dismissed as "you can't play with that, it's a girls' toy" (or vice versa).
My Mum, who has worked in a creche for pretty much my entire lifetime, tells me that this sort of thing rarely comes up anyway, and without encouragement young girls tend to go for the dolls etc whereas boys rush for the cars (although what went on at the children's homes is anyone's guess). When it does come up, though, the worst thing that can be done is surely to discourage the child from playing with the toys they prefer and forcing toys they don't want upon them.
This works the other way, of course -- it would be equally wrong to suggest to a boy that he should play with a doll if he's not shown any interest in it, just to show yourself as a parent capable of challenging traditional gender roles.
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