Way back in the 1950s my dads foster "sister in law" had four boys. The two yr old had said he wanted a dolls pram and Auntie Kath made sure he had one, very unsual for those days.

It doesn't help when my daughter calls my GD 'Princess' and we now have Princess No. 2. I really don't like it but I daren't comment. I just have to wait until they all grow out of it.

Toys, not moths!

Sorry, toys, not moths! Should have previewed

I blame commercialism.
When our children were young, most things were unisex...clothes, bikes,moths, bedding....and passed on.
Now manufacturers have realised that if they can ensure that if a second child is a different gender, everything has to be replaced and new items bought, they make a lot more profit.

Book arrived this morning, it is great and DGS loves it already, many thanks.

Many thanks for the copy of 'I'm a Girl!' Looking forward to sharing it with my granddaughter - and her brother! Lovely, lively book!

Thanks for the book "I'm a Girl." It arrived yesterday and it's lovely. I'm going to give it to my Gd1 who is four and just starting school.

Blackeyed, you are a breath of fresh air. Many thanks for your contributions! Think you deserve a

Mine wanted to be a fire fighter and now a scientist: which is an achievement as their dad is rather sexist. understatement if of course she decides on something more stereotypically girly later that will be fine, as long as she knows she has options.

Ds has a harder time of choosing stuff that is not stereotypically male. He used to love pink, he chose to buy a baby from the toy shop, and his dad looked like he had chosen a dead, rotting rat filled with maggots

Looking forward to receiving the book; have sent a UK address in case the publishers do not want to send to here.

What's,I'm a girl,all about,and why have we won one.

Far north,of course the child wasn't in the room at the time.
And incidentally,in my opinion,ballet,is very physical,We laughed at my nephews antics.
Remember I told you I'm a Equalforall person.
I don't discriminate,even dislike people who do.

I have 2 friends with grandchildren who are autistic, and I just thank God that my 2 (1 of each sex) seem not to have that condition, as it seems to cause such worry and heartache. So I just don,t care if the 2 year old boy wants to wear a pink princess dress to nursery or if the 1 year old girl will want to explore Mars when she gets older, just so long as they are happy and healthy.
A colleague of mine had a little boy who only wanted 1 gift for Xmas, a pink sweeping brush. But it HAD to be pink. He was then 3 years old, and has just been accepted in Oxford University.

Live, love and say thanks every day .Nanna Val.

Me too!!! First thing I've won for years.

Thank you very much for the book, looking forward to receiving it. X

Yay! I won a copy of the book!

I'm sure when your niece reaches an age when fairy tales are no longer her choice of reading matter her aspirations will change ��

When my two eldest sons were 6 and 7 they went to ballet classes. They also went to Ice Skating, swimming, Karate and drama because I wanted them to have fun and experiences.

The Ballet teacher said that the youngest son showed great promise as a dancer and even spoke of The Royal Ballet School in the future!!! He was a tubby little boy but she said that he would grow to be tall - she was right he is 6 feet tall. In his teens he was very supple and good at gym.

However, because the class was predominately full of little girls my sons didn't like the classes much and this wasn't helped by my fil's comments about "poofters"

The final straw came when the teacher said she would like to see the youngest boy in tights - there was no way he would go along with this - so it was goodbye ballet classes and who knows - goodbye to a successful male ballet dancer.

If my son had been a girl things would have been very different. Thank goodness times have changed and thank goodness for the film Billy Elliott.

Many years ago, some time in the 1960s, the ballet class before mine on Tuesday evenings in London was for footballers – it's a great aid to elevation.

"the boy used to go along to his sister's ballet lessons".
Wasn't it just that they both went to ballet lessons?

I believe many non-british footballers use dance training as well as normal football training to improve their skills.

Can anyone remember the documentary where they placed a baby about 9 months in a waiting room with his/her mum and then she asked someone coming into the room to look after baby whilst they went to see the doctor? Each time they changed the baby's clothes, clealy a boy for some of the times, and clearly a girl for others. There was 2 piles of toys- some clearly 'boys' and some clearly 'girls' - in each case, the way the person dealt with and reacted to, the child, spoke to them, chose the toys, etc- was totally different depending on whether said child was wearing boys or girls clothes. And on a day to day basis- it all adds up to a huge influence. Can anyone deny this?

And it is much easier nowdays for a girl to play rugby as well as do ballet, then for a boy to do ballet and play rugby- that is for sure.

My friend had twins, a boy and a girl and the boy used to go along to his sisters ballet lessons. She said that it was very good for coordination etc and would stand him in good stead when he played football, which I'm sure it did.

Do you mean you laughed at a little boy for doing ballet? And that his dad tutted and rolled his eyes "only jokingly of course"?
If so, the child would obviously pick up that his family thought there was something odd about what he was doing. He would not feel that it would be fine to continue with that.