My daughter, BG, cracks me up.

 
Over the summer, I take her to yard sales to buy toys, books, etc.  Towards the end of September we found an entire box of "costumes" that were her exact sizes, so we bought it.  The whole box of like 8 outfits was $1.  She dresses up in her little outfits around the house and wears her princess shoes.  She has a tiara and a wand too.  She loves to primp in front of the mirror.  She has one dress that is exceptionally flouncy.  She spins 'round and 'round in it in the living room until she can't stand anymore.  She calls it her dress with "pouf!"  (My bad, I taught her that word).

I have to add that I am not one of those women who treat their daughters as their personal life-size Barbie doll.  I generally dress her in pants because they are easiest all around; particularly in the winter time.  So, dressing up in pretty dresses is mostly her doing.  Of course, for Christmas we buy her the most gorgeous dress we can find for the Christmas card pictures... and she knows we make a big deal out of that.

 
BG also boasts an extensive collection of Thomas the Train toys.  She has enough track to build two trains stations, way too many troublesome trucks, the station, Cranky the Crane, and a remote-control car set too.

So, anyway, on Friday, I went to pick her up from daycare as usual.  There are usually about ten to twelve kids in her class and it works out that its half boys and half girls.  Usually, when I pick her up all the kids are in a mass group working on an activity.  On Friday however, I wanted to get some errands done so I left work a little early.  It was free-play so the activity was not structured.

As I walked into the room there were boys on the right side of the room and girls on the left.  The boys were down on the floor playing with all the toys in the room that have the potential to make noise; trains, cars, airplanes, etc. There was a large toy-garage with a big wrap-around ramp on it and there were building blocks on the floor too. They looked like they were having fun!  There was much commotion as each child made his own vehicle noise of choice while trying not to crash into another child's moving toy.

The girls, however, had put chairs in a straight line, one behind the other, and each girl was sitting in her respective chair with a baby doll in her lap.  There was complete silence coming from this side of the room and as I looked, I couldn't figure out what game they were playing.  Bo-oring…

As I took in the scene, I quickly noticed that my daughter was not amongst the girls sitting in the chairs.  BG was indeed on the floor, with the boys, playing with a train that I soon learned is her favorite toy.  She and another little boy vie for this toy daily.  The little boy, knowing that she leaves early(ier than he does), patiently allows her to play with it until she leaves.  Then, she hands off the train to him.  Similarly, in the morning, he plays with the train until she arrives and then he hands it off to her (How had I missed this ritual before?!).

As a woman of the 21^st century, I work hard not to teach BG stereo types.  I try to teach her, by example, that mommy is just as capable of fixing things as daddy is of cooking.  I try not to make generalizations like “that’s just what boys do” or “nice little girls don’t talk with their mouths full.” 

So, is my hard work paying off?  Is my daughter learning that toys are not gender specific?  Is she figuring out that she can do anything, no matter what sex she is?  Or am I reading too much into things and is she just a three year old that wisely chooses fun over boring?

By the way, on Friday, BG decided she was going to wear her princess shoes to school instead of her sneakers.