I have a three-year-old in my house who I’m worried is developing a warped sense of gender roles.
For example, on a recent walk to pick her older sister up from Kindergarten, we had this conversation.
Miss 3 – Mums just buy stuff from the shop and put it on their face and look in the mirror. Me – What else do Mums do? Miss 3 – Nothing Me – What do Dads do? Miss 3 – They go to Rock School with all the other Dads.
So, I just asked her today if Mums work. Her reply: “No, Mums play games, they go to Mums gym class and they go to the couch shop to get more couches. That’s all. Have you seen my cat and can you get me something to eat now?”.
We must remember she is the same child who demanded I take her and her sisters to the airport and “put us on a Jetstar plane to Lolly Land”.
3 year old fairy: ‘Mummies go to work and drink coffee. Daddies just go to work’ 4 year old Boy-Who-Asks-Questions: ‘Mummies take care of people and get cross if no one listens to them. Daddies do the same thing.’
Thank goodness there was some element of nurturing in there!
Love the Jetstar to lollyland. Mums go and visit each others houses for tea and cake. That’s what I used to think, I never noticed all the cooking, washing, bedmaking until I started helping with it.
This is the reason why I say I’m going to work even when it’s not technically work *cough* blogging event. But it hasn’t helped any. I still get ‘only daddy can fix things’. Really?! The least handyman on the planet is your go-to guy?
My son is a little older and grew up in a single parent home until he was 8 so he never went through that. My niece however thinks that Mom’s are supposed to work at night (my sister is a server in a restaurant) and that Dad’s are supposed to work all day (her stepdad works in construction). She thinks it is the oddest thing that I don’t go to work at night when they visit.
This plays on my mind a lot – I feel this huge responsibility to show my daughter that gender roles aren’t fixed in stone. But it’s exhausting sometimes!
Hi, I'm Bianca Wordley, I write about life.
Just asked and here are their unedited responses:
3 year old fairy: ‘Mummies go to work and drink coffee. Daddies just go to work’
4 year old Boy-Who-Asks-Questions: ‘Mummies take care of people and get cross if no one listens to them. Daddies do the same thing.’
Thank goodness there was some element of nurturing in there!
Love the Jetstar to lollyland.
Mums go and visit each others houses for tea and cake. That’s what I used to think, I never noticed all the cooking, washing, bedmaking until I started helping with it.
When my nephew was small, he used to say, “Mummy does the washing and works with the milk (nightfill in a supermarket).
This is the reason why I say I’m going to work even when it’s not technically work *cough* blogging event. But it hasn’t helped any. I still get ‘only daddy can fix things’. Really?! The least handyman on the planet is your go-to guy?
My son is a little older and grew up in a single parent home until he was 8 so he never went through that. My niece however thinks that Mom’s are supposed to work at night (my sister is a server in a restaurant) and that Dad’s are supposed to work all day (her stepdad works in construction). She thinks it is the oddest thing that I don’t go to work at night when they visit.
This plays on my mind a lot – I feel this huge responsibility to show my daughter that gender roles aren’t fixed in stone. But it’s exhausting sometimes!