boys and dolls.
Anderson has accumulated a few dolls since he was born; I even dug up my old favourite dolls from my childhood. Dolls were hands-down my favourite toy, so I was excited to dig them out. And it doesn’t really matter that he is a boy, I don’t want to only expose him to gender stereotyped toys for boys. I like a wide variety of play things for him. What is with the pale pink and lavender flower-clad girl clothes and toys and the royal blue and red airplane/truck/car themed clothes and toys for boys? It is so annoying. I’m not going to force him to play with dolls and drink tea out of flowed cups, but if he wants to do that, then he will know it is okay. Or maybe he’ll be crazy for airplanes and trucks. I’m excited to see where his interests will lie. Right now he loves trucks and blocks and little people, and pretending to make soup with a pot and wooden spoon, and he likes to give hugs to his dollies and teddy bears. I hope I will be able to raise a well-rounded young man. And right now he doesn’t care that he wears diapers that are red, orange, blue, pink, lavender or floral-motif, he just wants to explore his world and put names to those colours and imitate mom and dad.
Below is a link to a great article "Real Boys Play with Dolls" in Mothering that put some words to the boys and dolls thing. By playing with dolls they learn to be empathetic, to nurture, and how to be a dad, or a big brother. Right now Anderson is happily banging on a pot with a wooden spoon. Every now and then he looks over at his doll friend Lisa and touches her face, to check in that she is participating. He grabs her hand, says a few baby babbles, and then goes back to hitting the pot. He’s practicing socialization with this pretend person. Now he’s laying his head on her chest and singing and then pretending to pick little morsels out of the pot to feed to her. Oh and he hits her in the head a few times with the wooden spoon. Lisa was my favourite doll as a child, I got her when I was three and probably played with her until I was 12, so far, it looks like Anderson is enjoying her as much as I did.
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In : Motherhood