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conuly
Here I am, searching Google to see if I can find an image of that spaceship onesie I want to show you guys (no luck yet). And I come across the following site: Tell me this isn't just the cutest stacky toy you've ever seen!
I wander slightly, and notice that they have gifts for baby girls, and gifts for baby boys... no gifts for plain old fashioned "babies". This can't end well...
Boys get an astronaut set, or a dragon set, or one of three different sports sets, in addition to the fairly bland-and-banal layettes and whatnot that you see everywhere.
A lot of stuff chosen because they're pink. No stacking toys. No dragons to stretch their little minds. Nope. There's a princess gift....
You tell me. Which overpriced gifts do *you* prefer?
I wander slightly, and notice that they have gifts for baby girls, and gifts for baby boys... no gifts for plain old fashioned "babies". This can't end well...
Boys get an astronaut set, or a dragon set, or one of three different sports sets, in addition to the fairly bland-and-banal layettes and whatnot that you see everywhere.
A lot of stuff chosen because they're pink. No stacking toys. No dragons to stretch their little minds. Nope. There's a princess gift....
You tell me. Which overpriced gifts do *you* prefer?
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:36 am (UTC)If the stuff is in fact hand-made, the prices aren't that unreasonable, given the number of individual labor-hours which would be required for knitting.
I agree with you about the sexism of the categorization -- but that doesn't mean you have to go along with it. Buy "boy" stuff for the girl babies you know, or vice versa as you think best. Babies don't care. [ smile ]
I don't remember if it was to you or to someone else I told this story in a comment a few months ago, but when my son Kevin was around one-year-old we ran out of clean onesies after he wet himself more than we expected him to do while we were at a mall, and all we could find in his size in a hurry was a pink one. We bought it and put it on him. Didn't bother him, he ran around the mall with aplomb. (I told nosy-parkers that he was secure in his sexual identity, thank you very much.)
I once read of a "liberated" couple who bought "boy" toys for their daughter but were distressed when all she wanted were cooking toys, which they saw as "girl" toys. It finally occurred to them that as self-employed home-workers, the girl saw both of them cooking at home every day, and wanted to do what saw both mama and daddy were doing. "Boy" or "girl" had nothing to do with it.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:41 am (UTC)P. S.: What's really annoying is that after years of seeking space clothes and toys for our own little ones before they got big, now that you've found this for us, we have nobody to buy the spacesuit and stuffed rocket for! Our own kids are fourteen and twelve now, and we don't currently know anybody with babies. Tanj!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:42 am (UTC)"Boy" or "girl" had nothing to do with it.
I made a post about this very thing not that long ago! Well, a few months... Children at the SICM love, universally, playing in the part of the blocks room that has the toy kitchen. Children Ana's age seem to love, universally, toy strollers. It's not a mom thing - they just want to be like the adults around them!
that doesn't mean you have to go along with it. Buy "boy" stuff for the girl babies you know, or vice versa as you think best. Babies don't care.
Oh, *I* know that - but that doesn't mean that there aren't silly people who don't get it at all. More's the pity.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 02:58 am (UTC)Do you think a kid is really going to care if something is pink, or purple if he's a boy - unless someone says "Oh well that color is for girls." like it's a bad thing.
I'm sorry - but Corbin has pink, blue, green, yellow and orange (I think) bottles. He has two green pacifiers, a purple one, a blue one and a pink one. Somebody once got on my case because "Oh well - that will make him feel bad because pink & purple is for girls." And I told them that I doubt he'll really care either way. Pink and purple are colors. They are not designated for genders. Yes - they may traditionally be for girls, but who cares? *shakes head* I happen to think he looks cute sucking on his pink binky. And he likes it and that's all that matters.
Anyways - to answer your question.. (and to end my long-winded rant -- *sorry*) I don't like overpriced gifts. lol. Cheap is good for me.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 03:46 am (UTC)You don't need to tell ME how crappy it is.
Date: 2006-02-06 03:50 am (UTC)My stepbrother (from my father's first marriage) is eight years older than I am. When I was starting to notice the toys bought him and sent off for his birthday & christmas, I found myself very jealous indeed.
Because he got cool things like erector sets and science kits and tinkertoys and stuff. I got Barbies. And clothes for Barbie. And cutesy little stuffed animals. And cheapass jewelry that turned your neck green.
I would much rather have had his gifts, or at least a book, but even though I plagued my mother incessantly to be taken to the library, no books as gifts ever appeared.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 03:07 am (UTC)Found your journal off some parenting communities and added you, hope you don't mind. your journal seems interesting, lots of cool articles and cute stories. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 03:11 am (UTC)*rummages around for appropriate disclaimer*
Oh yeah, here it is:
I'm not a parent. In case you were misled. No intention of ever being a parent. Love my niecelings (watch them every day). Love my nephews (never get to see them). Need several hours of alone time EVERY DAY, and hopefully much of my weekends free - which is why I'm not planning, EVER, on having kids. I love watching my nieces, just so long as, at the end of the day, I can GO HOME.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 01:41 pm (UTC)Re: You don't need to tell ME how crappy it is.
Date: 2006-02-07 04:21 pm (UTC)That made me cry. :-(
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:36 am (UTC)If the stuff is in fact hand-made, the prices aren't that unreasonable, given the number of individual labor-hours which would be required for knitting.
I agree with you about the sexism of the categorization -- but that doesn't mean you have to go along with it. Buy "boy" stuff for the girl babies you know, or vice versa as you think best. Babies don't care. [ smile ]
I don't remember if it was to you or to someone else I told this story in a comment a few months ago, but when my son Kevin was around one-year-old we ran out of clean onesies after he wet himself more than we expected him to do while we were at a mall, and all we could find in his size in a hurry was a pink one. We bought it and put it on him. Didn't bother him, he ran around the mall with aplomb. (I told nosy-parkers that he was secure in his sexual identity, thank you very much.)
I once read of a "liberated" couple who bought "boy" toys for their daughter but were distressed when all she wanted were cooking toys, which they saw as "girl" toys. It finally occurred to them that as self-employed home-workers, the girl saw both of them cooking at home every day, and wanted to do what saw both mama and daddy were doing. "Boy" or "girl" had nothing to do with it.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:41 am (UTC)P. S.: What's really annoying is that after years of seeking space clothes and toys for our own little ones before they got big, now that you've found this for us, we have nobody to buy the spacesuit and stuffed rocket for! Our own kids are fourteen and twelve now, and we don't currently know anybody with babies. Tanj!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:42 am (UTC)"Boy" or "girl" had nothing to do with it.
I made a post about this very thing not that long ago! Well, a few months... Children at the SICM love, universally, playing in the part of the blocks room that has the toy kitchen. Children Ana's age seem to love, universally, toy strollers. It's not a mom thing - they just want to be like the adults around them!
that doesn't mean you have to go along with it. Buy "boy" stuff for the girl babies you know, or vice versa as you think best. Babies don't care.
Oh, *I* know that - but that doesn't mean that there aren't silly people who don't get it at all. More's the pity.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 02:58 am (UTC)Do you think a kid is really going to care if something is pink, or purple if he's a boy - unless someone says "Oh well that color is for girls." like it's a bad thing.
I'm sorry - but Corbin has pink, blue, green, yellow and orange (I think) bottles. He has two green pacifiers, a purple one, a blue one and a pink one. Somebody once got on my case because "Oh well - that will make him feel bad because pink & purple is for girls." And I told them that I doubt he'll really care either way. Pink and purple are colors. They are not designated for genders. Yes - they may traditionally be for girls, but who cares? *shakes head* I happen to think he looks cute sucking on his pink binky. And he likes it and that's all that matters.
Anyways - to answer your question.. (and to end my long-winded rant -- *sorry*) I don't like overpriced gifts. lol. Cheap is good for me.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-06 03:46 am (UTC)You don't need to tell ME how crappy it is.
Date: 2006-02-06 03:50 am (UTC)My stepbrother (from my father's first marriage) is eight years older than I am. When I was starting to notice the toys bought him and sent off for his birthday & christmas, I found myself very jealous indeed.
Because he got cool things like erector sets and science kits and tinkertoys and stuff. I got Barbies. And clothes for Barbie. And cutesy little stuffed animals. And cheapass jewelry that turned your neck green.
I would much rather have had his gifts, or at least a book, but even though I plagued my mother incessantly to be taken to the library, no books as gifts ever appeared.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 03:07 am (UTC)Found your journal off some parenting communities and added you, hope you don't mind. your journal seems interesting, lots of cool articles and cute stories. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 03:11 am (UTC)*rummages around for appropriate disclaimer*
Oh yeah, here it is:
I'm not a parent. In case you were misled. No intention of ever being a parent. Love my niecelings (watch them every day). Love my nephews (never get to see them). Need several hours of alone time EVERY DAY, and hopefully much of my weekends free - which is why I'm not planning, EVER, on having kids. I love watching my nieces, just so long as, at the end of the day, I can GO HOME.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 01:41 pm (UTC)Re: You don't need to tell ME how crappy it is.
Date: 2006-02-07 04:21 pm (UTC)That made me cry. :-(