My yearly rant about toys.

[mykpart]

I just finished listening to Gene Autry singing "Up On The Housetop." In the song, Little Nell's stocking contains a "dolly that laughs and cries, one that can open and shut her eyes." One toy. A doll. Then comes the stocking of Little Bill. ". . .a hammer and lots of tacks, a whistle, a ball and a whip that cracks." Hammer & tacks. Whistle. Ball. Whip. Four toys. I used to sing that song when I was a litle girl. How come I never noticed that Nell got screwed?

While I'm at it, how come girls get housework toys, (toy dishes and toy sinks in which to wash them, toy stoves, toy brooms, toy vacuum cleaners, dolls that pee), and boys get toy toys (baseballs, footballs, hockey sticks, trains, racetracks)?

And has anyone else noticed the abundance of war toys?

[AmyDeLune]

1. and what's Little Bill going to use that whip on, eh?

I remember wondering why Little Nell got gypped too. Of course Bill's whistle will "disppear" after Mom & Dad have to listen to it all day, likewise the hammer and tacks, he'll be lucky if he's left with the ball...:D

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. Girls only get housework toys, if their parents stick to stupid gender roles.

I'm a girl and I grew up on barbies, GI Joes, matchbox cars and toy guns. My Barbies often cross-dressed in Ken's clothes and GI Joe uniforms. I also played street hockey with friends and spent a bunch of time fishing. Oh and plenty of violent videogames.

Anyway, I turned out anti-war (at least this one) with a love of guns. I don't really think there's anything wrong with war toys. If a kid doesn't have a toy gun, they'll just use their hands or a stick or something.

[murielm99]

3. You got that right.

I did not give my son any violent toys, so he used his remote-control car to play hit-and-run Barbie with his sisters' dolls. Of course they freaked, and I confiscated the car.

The next year, I bought him some GI Joe crap.

[emmajane67]

4. I only had non-gender specific toys.

No barbies, lots of blocks and bricks and hammers and bikes and sorts of things like that. Noooo violent video games, no water pistols, nothing that even remotely had a sniff of violence.

First child of two teachers who took all the child developmental theories to heart.

I turned out okay but the battle to learn to 'be a girl' had been a long slow one. I am still very non-gender specific which doesn't especially bother me but I would like to be more girlie sometimes.

I don't see anything wrong with giving girls pretty dresses and dollies, maybe plastic hoovers etc is going a bit far but that's mainly cos I don't see how that would be a fun game to play. A nice mix of toys is nice.

I certainly wouldn't give any child any sort of violent video game or girls any super slutty clothes/toys like some of them. Innocence is nice.

I also think you can have too many toys that are not imaginative enough. Have an imagination is good, I think video games etc inhibit such things, where as blocks or making a hut out of chairs and blankets has a lot going for it in that way.

Okay, that's my ramble about toys and the like, thanks for listening. :)

[benEzra]

5. My son has a toy kitchen set, and my daughter has toy guns.

I cook and help take care of the kids, and my wife is a damn good shot. So we don't fit those traditional gender stereotypes, and neither do our kids.

Now, our daughter also enjoys playing with dolls and such, and we don't have a problem with that. Nor do we have a problem with our son doing so, either, though his primary interest at the moment is jigsaw puzzles.

[skygazer]

6. Then they grew up to be women and got the real thing

When I was a kid, it always amazed me that my mother got things like a new ironing board or a vacuum cleaner for birthdays and holidays and my dad got bowling balls and golf clubs. :wtf: The one time she got a sort of fun gift was when my dad gave her a fake fur coat - and she found out after the holiday that he'd put it on her account at the department store!

[China_cat]

11. Before we got married I made it very VERY clear

to my husband that houselhold appliances of any kind were NOT holiday or birthday gifts. And that if he ever gave me a can opener (or related item) for said special days, I'd ship his ass back home to his mother faster than he could realize where he was going.

It's been 32 years now and so far, so good.

[evirus]

7. their toys

if you dont like them buy your kids something elese

[LaraMN]

8. When NoelMN was three, I took him to the store to choose a doll

and he picked out a little African-American one, with a blue outfit. He liked to play "baby" with it, but also used the head as a mallet for his xylophone.

:crazy:

[youthere]

9. I stopped to visit a friend of mine yesterday..

she provides day-care out of her home. While I was there three of the boys pulled out these fake plastic swords and played for awhile. They quickly lost interest, dropped the swords and went to watch "CARS". Meanwhile two of the little girls there picked up the swords and started to play. My friend took the swords from them and said "Those are boy toys!"
I was shocked! Okay, Let me say that I'm not real big on toy swords or guns or any of that crap in the first place, but the whole "boy toys" thing really threw me for a loop.
I just said quietly "They are only boy toys if a boy is playing with them.
She just looked at me funny and put the swords away.

[Mutley]

10. I don't get the whole "boy's toys" and "girl's toys" thing.

My nine year-old niece has on her list, among other items, things like moon shoes, anime action figures, an electronic keyboard, and a razor scooter. The only girly thing on the list is a Bratz doll.

My four year-old nephew only wants moon shoes and Matchbox cars -- oh, and Mario Soccer for PS2.

My sister and BIL did nothing to encourage an interest in gender specific toys. They just let the kids enjoy what they want to enjoy.

[Left Is Write]

13. We don't do anything to encourage gender specific toys either...

but my son still seems drawn to trucks and dinosaurs, and my daughter to ponies and princesses. However, to be fair, my son plays Barbies with my daughter frequently. When they play house, my daughter makes my son wash the dishes.

[Mutley]

14. I don't think it's necessarily a problem if kids

stick to gender specific toys, I just don't like the idea of pushing a child to choose an identity based on gender, including which types of toys he or she should play with. I see a lot of parents do this with children at my job.

The other day a woman wouldn't let her daughter choose a toy called Fly Wheels because it was in the boys section. I sometimes wonder if some of these parents would even know the difference between the boy's and the girl's sections of the store if not for the gender specific colors.

[NV Whino]

12. I, being female,

Got the following at various times in my life:
1. boxing gloves
2. train set
3. tool set
4. various real tools at an older age
5. cars and trucks

I got dolls, too, but seldom played with them.