22 February 2009

innocence celebrated

(photo from Children on the Green)

One of the things I love about having children is rediscovering the innocence. At this young age, most children are devoid of cruelty, racist attitudes and our adult cynicism. Fiona loves her friends and on any given day she announces to me that she is going to "marry Anabel" or wants to have Tyler, Douglas, Ian and/or Nicholas over to spend the night and "sleep in my bed". I smile as I realize that soon she will be "tainted" by society and all its judgments. I am sure those of you that have children have sweet memories of your children walking hand in hand with friends from all different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Wouldn't it be a better world if society didn't 'get to them' and tarnish that innocence?

Really there is a point to my ramble today... I guess I have been thinking about these things because Fiona had friends over on Saturday afternoon. The group was a mix of girls and boys. Having two girls, I am always amazed at how truly different the genders are - they play differently, they communicate differently, etc. It starts so early! I delight in seeing Fiona "get tough" with the boys. Fortunately, the girls rubbed off on the boys, too, as demonstrated in this photo...
The girls, of course, wanted to dress up as princesses. It was sweet when Nicholas requested a Belle costume because he, too, wanted to be pretty. After a little digging, we found costumes for both Nicholas (a sweet fairy) and Ian (pretty flower girl). Look at the smile on Nicholas and isn't Ian so poised?!? They enjoyed it so much, they cried when they had to take them off. We laughed that Ian's little brother, Charley - not yet 2 -, wanted no part of the festivities.
Nicholas and Ian's behavior is not unusual.

Apparently, loads of boys don tiaras, boas, and frilly costumes during their preschool years as they learn about gender roles and what is acceptable. I think it's interesting that we think nothing of a girl being a 'tom boy' (my daughter included) but it gets a bit 'troublesome' when the shoe (or glass slipper?!?) is on the other foot. I have no doubt that Ian and Nicholas will grow up to be "men's men" and break the hearts of many women the world over. But for now, I will smile at the memory of all them twirling in my living room singing "Bippiddi-Boppidi Boo".

8 comments:

GinSpaghetti said...

Oh this is so cute! I used to have more boy friends than girl friends when I was little because of when the play group mom's had babies... I remember pictures of us like this! So funny! Well, I remember not having a fun pee tool like the boys, LOL!

I got my fabric from Etsy! Fernridgefabrics is the seller, she's really fast!

S Engelmohr said...

What a cute post. I remember when my kids were little and yes they had so many friends of different socio-econimic backgrounds. I raised them to see that differences were a good thing, and now see the same traits being passed on to my grandkids. Keep up the good work.

LeeAnne said...

I agree completely! This is just one of many reasons I lament Maggie getting older ... the ways society's expectations invade my child's world, even in such seemingly "innocent" ways as toys and playtime.

Would love to get together sometime! You're in K'ville, right? At some point we're going to come up for the day to see a friend who's expecting; maybe we could meet up at a park or playground later and let the girls play. I'll let you know when we come!

Jen said...

I love my children's innocence too. My little boy is such a boy, but his favorite color is pink. He looks up to his sister just a tad. It is really quite cute. Great post.

Thanks for all the nice comments on my blog. You are too sweet.

Nikki said...

That is cute :)

And that is great that you want to sponsor a child! One country in particular need right now is Uganda. I have 5 sponsor kids through different organizations. I could not speak more highly of World Vision though- it is definitely my favourite. Just last week I got the opportunity to visit my World Vision sponsor child in Ethiopia (www.ethiopia2009-adana.blogspot.com) and I am so, so impressed with all they do. I can definitey tell you that with them, your money is going a LONG way! Other great things about WV is that you can send letters and gifts whenever you want, and if you choose you can send extra money directly to the family once a year and WV will take a picture of your child's family with whatever they bought with the money. Tsehay's family bought a cow and a dress for her. I have not heard back from my little guy in Haiti yet to see what they bought, but I should be hearing from them soon!

Ann Harrison said...

Precious! Absolutely perfect.
This makes me so happy for our future generation. Play! Have fun! Be happy!
You are an excellent mom :->

Dawn said...

My little one loves American Girl dolls and even asked Santa for an American Boy one! I looked all over the internet and never found one but I sure found a lot of articles by scared parents who were horrified that their son wanted to play barbie or my little pony. So sad...it looks like you are surrounding your little girls with some lovely open minded parents (and children)....yay for you!
:)

Going Crunchy said...

Luv it!

I fear I would fail at raising a girl - I just cannot do frilly. I lvoe fairy and such, but not frilly or foof. I am kinda glad I have boys so I don't have to worry about it, but I don't want to restrict the boys in wanting girl things.

My boys get to play dress up too - and I love having costumes about. It's fun!