In a world where all humans ‘should’ be treated equally, there is still a long way to go when it comes to gender stereotypes. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest which ‘gender’ people want to associate with, but I feel educators, coaches, parents and adults have a duty to offer the same thing to all children (free from judgement and with an open heart).
I completely understand that some boys might want to ride scooters and some girls may want to play with dolls, but isn’t the opposite just as true? Yep, some girls like pink, but some hate it. This whole “pink is for girls and blue is for boys” or “skateboards are for boys and fairy wings are for girls” crap is outdated.
There have always been, and will continue to be children who break the mould. Encourage that! If their passion is not ‘the norm’, who cares?!!! And if it is, then embrace that too! If they’re happy and not hurting anyone, does it really matter if your son wants to learn to dance or your daughter wants to ride a skateboard?
I was at a school the other day for ‘wheels day’. All of the boys had their scooters and helmets and the girls had nothing. Im not judging this particular group of kids as they were awesome and the girls jumped at the chance to skate around all day with the Kahuna boards and big sticks and had an absolute ball doing it. They were such great kids! It just made me realise how much further we still have to come with this.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said that “you wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you, if you actually realised how seldom they do” . I love this quote, wish I’d heard (and really understood it) earlier in life.
Encourage your kids in ALL areas! Inspire them to move, draw, dance, build, paint or play music. Motivate them to love learning and risk taking. Life is what we make it and every child deserves every opportunity to grow and find their own passion, even if it’s not ‘the norm’.
What even is ‘the norm’ anyway?!
How about you do you and I’ll do me. Just be yourself and follow your heart, have fun and give everything a crack. You never know what exciting things life may have in store for you or your children.
