2006
i’ll read the map and you’ll do all the driving
maura @ 1:46 pm
The snow’s nearly all melted now as it’s been in the 40s and 50s all week, boo hoo. But we did get to go sledding after school on Tuesday with Gus’ best buddy from school, which was a blast.
And speaking of preschoolers, reading Steve’s post on nail polish for boys (and the Bitch PhD* post and Newsweek article it links to, which I am too lazy to link to here so head on over to Steve + Jessie’s if yr interested) has got me thinking. Recently I’ve been saddened to notice that the gender-neutral utopia of the preschool set looks to be coming to an end. The tomboy stuff is ever-endearing, of course (I’m still a tomboy myself): one little girl we know has the coolest shirt with tools printed all over. But I love the girly-boy stuff the best. Gus specifically requested pink and blue nail polish last year, not because he wanted to be like the girls but because his best boy buddy was wearing some. This year that buddy told a girl in their class that she couldn’t like dinosaurs, only boys could. Kind of hilarious coming from a boy in a pink and purple powerpuff girls hat.
My #1 favorite is a boy in Gus’ class who has two older sisters and often wears leopard-print leggings with his batman sneakers (and — bonus points — uses a barbie lunchbox). And last week after I very reluctantly consented to buy Gus some thomas the tank engine sneakers**, I was complaining to another parent who then told me she never takes her son shopping because he always wants dora the explorer sneakers, and they are just so very ugly.
I’m pretty much a tomboy myself***, and it makes me sad to think that next year when Gus goes to kindergarten (in a BIG school, through 5th grade!) all of this freewheeling gender bending will end. Isn’t the world more fun when everyone can wear pink nail polish?
* Man, I always forget to check Bitch PhD because she updates it nearly constantly and I can’t keep up. I’m more of the 2-4x monthly updater myself, and feel most drawn to other blogs that publish on a similarly slacker schedule. But she always has something interesting to say, and I am going to try and remember to check out her site more frequently.
** Can I tell you that they were the ONLY pair of thomas sneakers in the whole store?!?! And they just happened to be in his size. FanTAStic.
*** When I brought the nail polish home for Gus of course he immediately wanted me to paint his nails, which I did. The problem was that then he wanted me to paint MY nails, too, which I was less than pleased about. I don’t think I’ve really ever worn nail polish, not even in high school (the only time at which I wore any makeup at all, and it was minimal). I finally consented to paint my toenails and yuck, what a feeling! As a friend of mine put it: “like your nails are suffocating.” Ick.
