Pretty in Pink?

You know the drill, if its a boy everything blue and if its a girl everything pink, of course. Despite my best efforts to keep the girls clothing somewhat gender neutral in color, that annoying pink keeps flooding in the door. You know the pink I am talking about, similar to that of pepto bismol. As soon as they are born they get a pink hat and blanket, and heaven forbid someone ask if your little bald baby is a boy! People are always so quick to apologize when they realize they just called my three month old a "he." I always laugh and say "That's okay she doesn't know she's a girl yet either." And that's true! That little bundle of joy doesn't have a clue and they don't care either. As long as she has a dry diaper and steady supply of milk she could care less. My oldest daughter just turned two and this is when it starts to get interesting.

Toddlers are just learning to make decisions and are constantly pushing the boundaries. From the get go society is pushing girls into a pink world of ponies and princesses. In fact most parents are the driving force behind it. Just tonight I watched my husband grab a new purple sippy cup with hearts on it at the grocery store. I stopped him and asked him if Lyra had pick out purple one. "No, but its the only girl one they have." I held the purple cup up along side a green one with robots and bicycles on it. Lyra instantly grabbed the green one. "But I like the purple one!" my husband said to persuade her. "Its not your cup" I stopped him. We have our entire lives to be slapped around by the norms of society no need to start on our toddler right now.

For the most part I let my daughter choose what she wants to wear each day. I often have to take a shirt away explaining that she can't wear the same shirt everyday because sometimes you have to wash your lunch out of your shirt. I love seeing what she will come up with next. Children have amazing minds. So amazing they can see that a cardboard box has 10 times more wonder than any plastic toy. When it comes to gender norms folks just need to relax. Your little girl will not be damaged by wearing a blue rocket ship shirt or your boy playing with a pink princess doll. In my opinion every girl and boy should have a doll and a truck not one or the other. Enjoy watching them explore this crazy world we live in.  

One of Lyra's favorite outfits