I remember when my daughter was born. Visions of her and I dressed in pinks and purples sitting in her lacy pink room playing dolls danced threw my head. A year later my son was born ;My husbands vision of sports and trucks revved around like mad men threw his manly mind.
Those dreams were simply that dreams. Little did I understand
there are lessons for parents to learn about childrens toys and who are children will be.
My daughter plays with dolls. She plays with clay and gets her hands dirty. She plays in the dirt, climbs trees and races her trucks around .,he plays kick ball , base ball and can run as fast as any boy.
My son plays with trucks and builds with blocks, he colors and plays ps2 and he plays house with my girls rocking babies and feeding them.
There was a instant my husband would bark to my son Put down that doll! until we came to the realization that play is really a childs preparation for real life. Our daughter was learning sportsmanship and how to be a team player from all the sports she played. My son was learning compassion and parenting skills from those dolls. Its amazing to me to watch my son now with his baby brotherI can see the compassion he has learned threw us and his play and I know some day he will be a sizeably workable father I see my daughter line up her brothers and sister for a game of kick ball. And I see how she has learned to take the lead and take charge. I understand
some day in what ever she put her mind to see will be a success.
My message to parents is not to limit their child. Toys and sports are learning tools for life and they shouldnt carry a gender.
By the waymy daughter and I play but its not dolls.many days you can find us all at the beachcovered in muddy sand driving our big Tonkas .
© 2004-2005 Jennifer Gove
http://www.simplymoms.com
Jennifer is a stay at home mother of eight.Living on the coast of Maine. To visit her parenting page
That include more aticles, forums and chat go to http://www.simplymoms.com/forums
zjgim@hotmail.com
