Can We Be Friends

We just got home from a whirlwind trip to GA.  While riding in the car I was checking FB on my phone.  My friend Heidi posted a link about gender roles and preschoolers.  Typical of an ADD person off her meds, I can't tell you the details of the whole article, but it really made me ponder Doodle and her friendship with Jayburb.  One part of the article basically discussed that by having cross gender friendships, we encourage our children to develop a variety of talents that they may not have a chance to practice in same gender friendships.  Now, do I totally buy into this?  No.  But do I think there is some validity to it?  Absolutely.   Jayburb and Doodle have grown up together.  Being 6 months older, he has taken care of her and shown her lots of new tricks.  They love each other like siblings, and bicker like them too.  Although they know Jayburb is a boy and Doodle is a girl, they see no difference between them.  They are just as quick to play trains and trucks as they are to push strollers and cook in the kitchen.  Somehow, we have managed to last 3.5 years with out the princess invasion.  When I was pregnant with Doodle, I definitely pictured a curly haired girl with lopsided pigtails, skinned knees, and a dirty face.  I never pictured her in frilly, girly dresses.  And as she grew and matured into her own person, this is truly who she became.  She isn't interested in dress up (yet) and she doesn't have a clue who Cinderella is (and I am okay with that).  I didn't start out trying to shield her from the princess mass marketing, it just happened.  And the longer we went with out that girly influence, the more I wasn't ready for it to invade her relatively gender neutral playground.  When SHE is ready for princesses, tutus and tiaras I will whole heartily embrace that stage of her life, but I am in no rush to get there!  All that being said, here are a couple of pictures of her buddy Jayburb, may they always see each other as just kids without any gender definition!

February 26 (220/365)

February 27 (221/365)