* Quirky Quotes

This statement I overheard last week as my children and I were in the church office. My daughter in all her 'outgoing no recognition of boundaries when others might be working' self walked into the youth ministers office and proceeded to ask him where his girl(wife) was. When Jason responded that she was at work Abigail informed him again in her no-nonsense way

"Girls don't work, only boys work"

We spend much time labeling things in our home as either boy or girl. While Judah and I have never intended to give them a narrow view of gender roles, we have nevertheless been blessed with a very girlie girl and a very sword loving boy. Our son does occasionally play in the kitchen with our daughter and she is just as likely to tackle someone who looks like they want to wrestle. These moments aside they ooze gender stereotypes at times. They are walking poster children for natural differences in the sexes. When my son was quite small and before I caved to the weapon box other play activities were encouraged. I remember a particularly funny moment(to me anyway) when my mother brought out some sidewalk chalk she had bought way before he was ready to use it and had been saving. We had finally decided he was old enough to understand the concept and practice his pre-writing skills on the patio. He picked a piece of chalk, did one little line, and while we were still admiring his line (because everything he did at that time was AMAZING) he promptly broke his chalk in two pieces. Thinking it a fluke he was given another piece. It was not a fluke. My mother raised two girls and apparently we never broke our things in half. Boys follow different rules. To this day I remind him not to break crayons, chalk, pencils, etc - at least while they are still new looking. :) Wired as more physical to the core. The flip side is my daughter who has been swimming in boy toys her whole life. The toy room is full of weapons, cars, balls, Lego's, transformers, and a few stray power rangers that have gotten by my defences. Despite the junior testosterone section she twirls and spins through it all singing to herself about how pretty she is.

We are not wired gender neutral - that is bogus on so many levels that I won't get into now - but even if I wasn't sure before I had children my mini-ninja and princess would have me convinced.