Irked

Another trip to Target, another stroll through the baby aisle.

I was looking at rattles in the little infant toy section when something caught my eye, but not in a good way.  First, there was the hammer and saw for "Bouncing Baby Boys", then there was the purse and diamond ring for "sweet little girls" (links are for the gift sets with all the toys together, so the wording on the box doesn't match the individual packaging).

Really?  We need to start the girls off that young with the giant diamond ring?  And why does the wording make it seem like it would be wrong to give the tools to a girl, since that's not who they are intended for?  R's father works with tools all the time, and he used to be in remodeling, maybe we'd like her to have tools to match daddy's.  Most of the time, when you look at the baby items, there are "girl" items, and gender neutral items.  I have quite a few girl toys that were given to me as gifts, but I just generally prefer the neutral items ("neutral" being anything but, they are usually nice, bright, bold colors), as does J.  It just generally irks me.

Then again, there are some ultra-girly things that I like for R.  Things that tend more toward a magical realm, like tutus and her flower head garland with long ribbons curling down the back, and clothes with rainbows and unicorns.  But yes, she still has a few items with robots on them, and yes, I got her a little stuffed dinosaur for her Easter basket.  And when we have a boy, I will paint his toenails pink if he wants me to, no questions asked.

(Offbeat Mama has some great articles about gender, written much more eloquently than my disjointed rambling above.  Love that site!)