Monday, February 15, 2010
the hardware store and Dora
We live in a really small town. For you Oregonian readers, our town is very similar to Elgin. On Saturday, I had to go to the hardware store to pick up a few things. I took Gibson along with me. We were going in the pickup and Gibson noticed a Dora doll that had been missing for a while in the back seat. Now, Gibson really likes Dora. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Dora is educational and heck, she is an explorer. We went inside the hardware store and Gibson was really excited that he found Dora in the car so I let him bring it in the store with us. I didn't realize how grand his excitement was until he started telling everyone we passed "I got Dora". Now imagine a hardware store full of scruffy men who have no clue that Dora is a cartoon character. All they see is a boy carrying a small doll with a pink dress who is excitedly going up to everyone and telling them that he is carrying a doll. About halfway through our hardware store experience the men started commenting things like "I sure hope that is your sister's doll", "You should be playing with guns", and so on and so forth. Needless to say we hurried through the rest of the store neglecting some of the things we were looking for that weren't too important. It made for quite the experience.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
My daughter totes around dinosaurs. Don't you love how people try and refocus your children if they think they've gone off track a bit. I would have been giving them the stink eye.
I think Dora is great too. Easton also likes her, but he always puts her in time out and tells her not to hit and scratch. Easton plays with lots of Addy's babies, but he still loves basketballs and footballs more. I figure these boys need to learn to take care of babies just as much as they need to learn to shoot a ball and a gun!
Too funny! I totally understand being fine with your kids being gender neutral on their toys. (And, Dora isn't exactly the most girly doll.) But at the same time, you know the stereotypical expectations that many people have. Like, how many people think it's weird that Afton goes nutty over buses, trucks, and cars, but could generally care less about doing anything with dolls besides stuffing them in garbage cans or other small places? (She's getting more maternal -- this morning, she put her doll in the crib and ordered it, "NAP! Nap!") Anyway, live it up with the refound Dora, Gib-man!
Ha, ha. I am sure people would have wierd comments if I let David out in public with his sister's princess dress-ups on (which he does like to where on ocassion). Sometimes Russ gets a little worried about it. I thing he just likes to dress-up, he also enjoys being a cowboy, fireman, and a pirate. Unfortunately, Alicia encourages to put on a princess dress when she is wearing one too.
Maybe you should Dora a gun. That takes care of both gender stereotypes.
HAHA, those stereotypes make me laugh. My little brothre played barbies and my little ponies right along with me and he turned out just fine!
What none of the old men knew was the victory of the possession of Dora. Had they known that, they would have been in Gibson's corner. Go Gibson!!!!
I didn't realize that Elsa didn't want to have anything to do with pillows. :) So funny about the hardware store.
I'm with you guys. Toys weren't made to be gender specific. We, as a society, make them that way. Kids tend to play with whatever toys are around and if they have oppostie gender siblings they will play with their toys (otherwise we'd never hear "MINE! MINE!"). I think boys should learn to be more maternal and girls should learn to be more masculine. Gibson will be the king of all the girls if he learns to be kind and gentle and Elsa will be able to kick the boys to the curb who aren't up to her standards. Way to be open minded! :-)
Jacob loves Dora too...and Anna loves Jacob's cars and trucks! That's totally fine with me!
Jacob knows how to count to 10 in Spanish thanks to a Dora episode :)
Post a Comment