Friday, January 20, 2012

Princess-Free Zone?

Okay, so on Cafemom, there have been a few moms out there who have been going stir crazy with this whole girly line of Lego's.  Of course, in the responses to the posts, there have been moms who say they love it or they wish they had it when a long time ago...
Where do you stand?
My house has never really been princess-free.  My daughter is only 4 months old and we bought princess stuff before she was born.  I didn't go full out and stuff, but we got the Disney Princess bed set as the back up bed set for the crib.  You know, for those nights her diaper overflows or whatever.  It doesn't have the actual princesses, but it has the castle and the pumpkin chariot and whatnot.
But even before that, we bought my son princess stuff.  Okay, don't yell at me.  You have your own kids.  First I bought my favorite princess movie.  Then Walmart stopped carrying hot wheels by it's check out so when he got his prize, he had to pick from what they had and they had these tiny princess dolls he wanted about the size of the military men we got for him.  It was perfect.  Besides, we all know that little boys play with their sisters toys anyway (my brothers played with mine when they were really little) and visa versa.  According to my mom, "The heroes need someone to save, so why not?"
Now, my daughter already has toys in her room that are above her age range that she can play with once she starts crawling that are hand-me downs from her brother.  She's got the fisher price tool set and the boy version of a few leap frog toys.  So what's it really matter if the toy is blue or pink?  They do the same thing.  So long as it is the same price, it doesn't bother me.
Will we buy her pink Lego's?  Sure, why not?  She'll be getting her big brothers Lego's once he not longer plays with them anyway.  I don't know if I will add to her big Lego's (those massive ones for toddlers) since Elliott never seemed to need more.  I think instead I'll get those blocks that look like bricks to make forts or whatever.
There are so many toy options.  Seriously.  It's not like parents can really change a child that much.  Yes, a parent can influence a child.  But if a girl really wants to be a hairdresser, then she will brush the hair on her dolls and stuffed animals.  If a boy really wants to play baby doll, he'll do it with a basketball.
So if a company wants to make pink Lego's, then let them.  My kids don't really turn them into what they are supposed to be anyway.  My daughter doesn't play with them yet (she's only four months, she's got a lot of time before she gets to play with the normal ones) and my son turns them all into space ships or guns.
So I am not anti-pink.  I'm not all for doing everything pink either.  Personally, I prefer purples and blues.  However, I am all for letting kids be kids and run with their imagination.
By the way, as a kid, I totally would have begged my parents to get me the pink ones.  They wouldn't have been making hair dresser places.  They would have been pink, purple, and yellow houses.  Or the tallest pink tower I could build before it fell over.  That's what I did with my Lego's anyway.

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