I'll have to write about the "beloved" guardapolvo culture here soon (the smocks the kids and their teachers wear over their clothes). It's quite a topic.
Anyways, some highlights:
1) The Monster has decided to replace his favourite game of We are Carnivores: Let's Hunt and Growl, with waving his pistol-hand around and going pchooo, pchooo (or however you write that).
-- Thank you, kindergarten friends exposed to nasty stuff. Should I forbid this, ridicule it, ignore it, subvert it? How how how? (I kind of do the last 3, though I really just want to do the first.)
2) The Monster has decided he does not play with girls. It would be like a pig being friends with a frog, you know.
-- Thank you, gender-obsessed world out there. Again: Should I forbid this, ridicule it, ignore it, subvert it? How how how?**
(I'm happy to say, though, that the very next day he asked me to tie on a scarf as a skirt, put a clip in his hair, and play some music so he could do some ballet dancing. I also assume, though, that it's just a matter of time before he learns that this kind of behaviour is girly, and therefore totally uncool.)
3) The Monster and the Monkey have snotty noses and wheezy coughs.
-- Thank you, germs that stalk my children. I can forego a(nother) week of sleep. Sure.
4) And both kids are quite happy.
-- Thank you, universe.
----------
** I am seething with revolt at an article in today's Página/12 (Spanish) about the new trend of girl-only birthday party venues, totally pink- and purple-ified, complete with make-overs and spa options. PEEYUUUKE! One owner shared her valuable insight:
Plus, the moms like to see their girls being quiet, pretty, not running all over the place and destroying the house.It's just so, so, so... wrooooooooong! It kind of makes me feel like a frog living with a whole bunch of pigs. And I don't want my kids to start oinking. But I don't know how to prevent it. Ribbiting isn't likely to work. You know what I mean?
5 comments:
Heh, no worries, kids usually grow up to be like their parents. I know I scared the hell out of my mom and dad when I was a teenager but I ended up having values very close to theirs in the end even when I said I wouldn't.
Maybe you could try to be like the parents who refused to assign a gender to their kid? Then the store would have to make a mix gender school kit. Ok, no I'm kidding, :P don't do that.
I like your blog.
Oh my god, my 3-year-old is doing exactly the same things at the moment - getting imaginary-gun-trigger happy (or more often exterminating people with his Dalek toilet plunger thingy) and not playing with girls in front of his very macho guy friends.
To be fair to him he still loves his girl friends from outside of pre-school and is very affectionate with them.
But still, I'm so sad that this gender separation thing has already started. It makes me want to cry!
And I hope you're right Wiffette about them eventually being more like their parents - but only the good bits of course.
Ugh. I feel for you. I guess the best you can do is subvert and question until they get old enough to do so themselves. If it helps, which I doubt, I was a pinkified, girly, ballet, Barbie type until high school, when feminism just seemed logical and I got more and more critical thinking skills. College made me a raving anti-gender-performance type and now it's my turn to tolerate and subvert the comments of a kid who is (unfortunately) learning from kids at school that his pink raincoat is allegedly girlie and his love of butterflies is unprecedented by those with a penis. Damn it. Not because I don't want him to fit in or for him to buck the system all by himself. But because why do they have to do that to him?
Wiffette: I really, really hope that you're right. (And yes, Flo, only the good bits of course).
It is definitely reassuring to remember how ridiculous I was at 4 (and many other ages and stages) and how I am hopefully quite a bit less ridiculous now.
Flo and Naptime: It is unspeakably reassuring to me to hear that your kids are already receiving the same unfortunate messages, and that it is not just because of our (wacky) decision to transport our family out here to Macondo. Somehow it makes it seem like a more acceptable, legitimate thing to have to deal with.
Just recently my son Nino (who is 5 and a half) has started saying things like "Oh, but I shouldn't do THAT cuz it's for GRILS." Etc. Etc. It really bothers me because I don't want him to get sucked into the gender stereotype vortex. But there is hope I guess, because purple is still his favorite color, he likes to wear barretts and lipstick around the house, and he would totally wear a tutu if we owned one. He covets them every time he sees one out in public. Take that, gender stereotypes.
Post a Comment