This reminds me of the time I got schooled on feminism by a two-year-old.
It's fueling some debates on sociology pages about parents unconsciously enforcing heteronormative behavior- things seem evenly split between "Aw, so cute" and "That man is crushing his child's spirit by insisting that he act like a man."
I was babysitting a little girl with a forceful personality. At some point my mother's voice came out of my mouth and said "Has anyone ever told you you're bossy?". She fixed me with her steely gaze.
"Yes." she said, "I am a bossy girl. And that is a good thing for a girl to be. My mom is bossy, my sister is bossy, and all my aunts are bossy. I want to be like them."
To my credit, after blinking a little, I said "You are absolutely right."
3 comments:
... but it's true, the kid is not a single lady. I fail to see the problem. I can picture your anecdote, and it is awesome.
The problem is that a three year old should be able to sing along to anything he wants. His dad accidentally upset him by singling him out.
Also, being a bossy girl is mostly awesome, except when it isn't sometimes. When it isn't, I blame it on boys.
Point was made that the girls are not ladies of marriageable age, and thus not the technical definition of "single lady", and yet daddy doesn't object to that. And yes, it seems like a harmless comment- but it excludes him from an activity that his older sisters (and thus super cool people) take part in- because of his gender. Thus, sad baby.
It's hard not to enforce gender stereotypes when rearing children! And they so rarely call you on it.
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