http://www.lohud.com/article/20091110/L ... ppointment
What struck me as relevant to SkirtCafe was:
I couldn't help thinking: why is it OK to dress your little girl in pink dresses, and not your little boy? Or, to turn it around, if it's not OK to put your little boy in pink dresses, why is it OK to do it to your little girl? (I came up with the second phrasing because it's well known that there are girls who, from a very young age, rebel at being dressed up like kewpie dolls, whereas nobody admits that there are little boys who would love to -- who do love to put on cute dresses.)"And they tell you it’s a boy, it’s like, ahhhh. For that short moment, you’re kind of bummed in the back of your mind. There’s not going to be any pink dresses. There’s not going to be any scrapbooking. That’s not going to happen," she said.
Somewhat OT, but I also thought: why wouldn't a boy like scrapbooking as much as a girl?
Doesn't anybody consider that their little baby, their little toddler, their little nursery-schooler and kindergartner, is actually a person, who might or might feel like going along with mommy and daddy's fantasies, or who might just not have the mental, physical, and/or emotional equipment to be what Mommy and Daddy have decided she/he is going to be?
I remember when my kids were little, everybody talked about the "terrible twos," and I never got it. My kids were somewhat more ambulatory at 2 than they were at 1, but other than that, they didn't seem to be much more of a handful. Of course, I never expected them to want what I wanted, and I always figured it was going to be sort of a negotiated compromise rather than them always saying "whatever you say, Daddy." The teen years haven't been so bad, either, other than my worries about whether they will make it on their own, without a team of adults to help them through their various crises.
