Realising My Dislike of "Male Gender Specific" Childrens Toys as an Adult
Today I went to visit some family in Solihull and felt like writing something about the day. I wanted to write about my little cousin who is seven years old. He is an only child and therefore has many toys and he even has his own playroom.
Well, one thing I notice when I am with him is how many gender stereotypical toys he has. And I actually feel pretty uncomfortable with this and dislike this. I understand some boys are specifically into gender stereotypical toys. Though, I was personally very uncomfortable about how many war related toys, guns, and cars etc he had. And none of the toys he wanted to show me were what I deemed as gender neutral or non-stereotypical like Lego or learning toys.
I wondered why I felt so deeply about these “boys” toys, and whether my cousins apparent interest in these stereotypical things was making me (being a so called man) feel uncomfortable because I had little interest or dislike for the toys.
Today kind of reminded me of my own childhood and made me think about my own interests. For some reason I was playing with girls toys at my cousin’s age, maybe because I had sisters. I was also playing imaginary games and make believe role playing. Of course I also had cars, and a wooden railway, cartoon figures such as Transformers when I was younger at the same time.
I have some feeling that my cousin’s father has influence of the toys that are in the house. He is definitely what I would term a man’s man. I see my cousin reflecting his father. After all it is father and son.
I think I sound like a dictator or something like that but if I had children I would try to prevent what I deemed stereotypical toys coming into the house. I would try to only allow gender neutral toys. Maybe it’s only fair to allow children to develop their own interests in the toys they play with. I hope my little cousin is really interested in his tanks, his guns, his cars, and trains. I hope it is not just his father’s influence.