Kevin and I have had our fair share of talks about this kind of thing already. Ethan has an abiding love for Disney princesses, and I don't feel like that's bad. Now that he's potty training, we decided to turn our second bathroom over to him and let him pick out decorations. It is now a mind-numbing shade of pink and full of fluff, sparkles, and princesses. And he loves it.
He loves to play with the cars and toy animals at his preschool, but last week they brought out the dress up bin and he wanted to explore that, too. Of course the whole box was full of plastic high heels, purses, princess dresses, and tutus. There was one air force jumpsuit in the box, but the co-op mom's daughter was wearing that. Ethan picked out a frilly purple dress and pulled it on over his clothes, and the co-op mom came racing over yelling, "NO NO!" to pull it off of him. He was terrified, I was livid, and she was confused. I tried to explain diplomatically how unreasonable it was to allow her daughter to dress "like a boy," but to scream at my son for dressing "like a girl." Not to mention, he's two years old. I sincerely doubt we're getting a preview of his adult sexuality in his dress up preferences. He likes purple, and he likes sparkly things. Purple sparkly dress = exciting and fun.
The long hair conversation was a losing battle for me - Kevin insisted we keep his hair short, which was particularly baffling coming from a man whose hair is now longer than his wife's. I think he's afraid of Ethan being teased by his peers as he gets older, but I feel like it's far too early to be restricting his behavior and appearance based on how strangers *might* react. As long as he's not naked or filthy, I'm happy to take him out in whatever he wants to wear.
no subject
He loves to play with the cars and toy animals at his preschool, but last week they brought out the dress up bin and he wanted to explore that, too. Of course the whole box was full of plastic high heels, purses, princess dresses, and tutus. There was one air force jumpsuit in the box, but the co-op mom's daughter was wearing that. Ethan picked out a frilly purple dress and pulled it on over his clothes, and the co-op mom came racing over yelling, "NO NO!" to pull it off of him. He was terrified, I was livid, and she was confused. I tried to explain diplomatically how unreasonable it was to allow her daughter to dress "like a boy," but to scream at my son for dressing "like a girl." Not to mention, he's two years old. I sincerely doubt we're getting a preview of his adult sexuality in his dress up preferences. He likes purple, and he likes sparkly things. Purple sparkly dress = exciting and fun.
The long hair conversation was a losing battle for me - Kevin insisted we keep his hair short, which was particularly baffling coming from a man whose hair is now longer than his wife's. I think he's afraid of Ethan being teased by his peers as he gets older, but I feel like it's far too early to be restricting his behavior and appearance based on how strangers *might* react. As long as he's not naked or filthy, I'm happy to take him out in whatever he wants to wear.