Okay, I can talk about other things really. No seriously I can, honest...er, well that said, I've got to get this off my chest:
Meccano has re-issued it's classic metal construction set. When I saw them for sale I bought two for Emlyn despite her being less than a year old. She's just under three now and we're going to wait a bit longer to break it out. I don't really care if she takes to it or not, but she's going to have the opportunity for that kind of constructive play.
Em is an intelligent, curious and energetic human being. You can almost see the potential radiating out from her, like some kind of Van der Graaf generated nimbus. I don't understand how anyone, male or female, could see that potential and want to limit it in any way. It makes me grit my teeth to think of it. Saying to your daughter "I love you." while shoehorning her into a narrowly defined gender role is the very height of destructive ignorance.
I can and will denounce, demean and fucking destroy if necessary, anyone who tries to limit my daughter because she's female.
Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/panta/
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Not by any particular action or motive we wound up being a very gender neutral household. My boys frequently don their older (coolest person in the world) siter's dresses, then they all grab swords and kill dragons. They think it's weird that some dads don't know how to cook and sew.
The truth be told I don't really have any plan other than to allow Em to decide for herself what her interests are. If she chooses to become a girly-girl that's her business. But if anyone tries to tell her that's the only way girls are suppose to be they're going to have a big problem from me.
My mum has a great story about the futility of planning how your kids are going to be. When my brother and I were infants she decided: no war toys. No toy guns or anything like that. She gave up on that notion one night when my brother turned his toothbrush around, pointed it at her and said "Bang, bang."
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