How I'm raising kids and breaking down stereotypes. Being a mom can be a terrifying job, you are literally molding little people into who they will become as adults. That is crazy! Every little mistake, bad day or spanking has a direct effect on their entire lives. This responsibility is something that I took on at an early age. A mom by 20, I got thrown in the deep end and my oldest, Bailor and I, learned things together.
My main goal as a parent from the beginning was to raise good people, who are open minded, ambitious and 100 percent themselves. Sounds easy, right? It is fairly easy until the outside world steps into your little bubble of a life and your tiny humans deal with people who were not always taught to be open minded, ambitious and 100 percent themselves
Being a fairly liberal mom, I was enraged one day after school eavesdropping on a conversation between Bailor,7, and Luna Jane, 3, when he tells her he cannot use the pink color because it's a girl' color.
My head whipped around so fast at this ugly gender stereotype being engrained on my sweet, open minded, soft hearted little boy's brain so early, without my consent.
"Where did you hear that?" He immediately got nervous then came to tell me that his teacher made a comment that pink and purple were girl colors. I was furious. My child was already being told what he could or couldn't like based on his gender. I calmly (biting my tongue) explained to him that colors are for everyone and no colors are only for girls or boys or dogs or cats - they were equal opportunity colors.
My conversation with the teacher didn't go as nicely. I tried to keep my cool, I questioned her method on this lesson, inquired further about what other gender stereotypes were being taught to my child then expressed my disappointment in this ugly lesson to my then clean slate of a child.
I know you can't shield kids from everything but something as archaic as teaching kids that colors have some sort of gender specific affiliation is ridiculous. Would we discourage a little girl from playing with a ball? Absolutely not. Girls are taught that they can do anything they put their mind to, why not teach boys the same?
So in my house, we can play with whatever toys we like, pick out whatever movies we like and color with all the colors of the rainbow because my kids have a lifetime of society's rules and regulations to abide by, why start now?