House Husband And Child Development

Posted by admin on September 22, 2009

House Husband And Child Development is one of the main topics that has influenced me as a S.A.H.D. (Stay at home Dad) and in particular the gender roles inflicted upon kids at an age when they are very easily influenced. I am not talking about sexual gender roles but rather the character costumes which our children are shoved into and must carry for their whole lives. The pink for girls and blue for boys mentality.

It has long been proven that boys are more sensitive than girls but society advises parents to “toughen up” boys and assigns them specific training tools to force these character traits, as it does with girls. For example my daughter decided to play hairstylist and turned herself into Sinead O’ Connor. I walked into the bathroom (thought she was taking a pee but it was “too quiet” which is always a real giveaway) to be greeted by handful clumps of blond hair…..we went quickly to the hairdressers who said the only way to rescue her unfortunate head was to do a marines haircut. And from the moment we left the salon “Oh, what a cute little guy…how old is he?” chirped a sweet ol’ lady. A week  before that tragic mishap when we went to the playground, with my daughter donning her usual dungarees, the folks were calling her a boy! Excuse me, but my daughter doesn’t like dresses, she finds them stupid cause she can’t play in the sand and stuff like the boys. Maybe it’s just the folks here in Germany.

Anyway, forgive the diversion, so boys are given toys such as trucks, weapons, swords, killer robots where often they would prefer to play with a doll and buggy or girls are given barbies (a topic so long I could write a book…I hate barbies) or tea-sets or play ovens when what they really would like to try is that cowboy hat and them loud cap guns. Of course I understand that there is a difference between men and women later in life (DOH!) but I feel it is totally essential to let kids try different things and not deprive them of their childhood. If a boy doesn’t want to play baseball but would rather learn jazz dancing or a girl would prefer to play with toy soldiers…why the heck not?

I believe that it isn’t the kids that have the problem but the adults who worry more about what the neighbors might think than the development of their offspring. We only get one chance to teach our kids and rather than live their lives and pick their dreams for them maybe it’s time to just be a little more supportive.