Anyone else have a long haired boy that sometimes chooses "girly clothes?"

[SarahBear]

Leo is almost three. I think of kids as recognizing boy and girl stereotypes/roles around 2 and a half to 3. Leo is quickly closing in on three and wants long "pretty" hair and wears quite a range of clothing. Consequently, he is frequently mistaken as a girl. When do you think he'll start to notice? When did your boys start to notice? I know we're quickly closing in on the stage where kids like to rigidly adhere to gender stereotypes. Hopefully we can make it through that phase without him getting too rigid about it as I know some kids do.

 

[ClairAye]

My son has always had cut hair but liked wearing dresses, had a Frozen bag, wanted a MLP school bag, wore 'girls' pjs and some tops etc and it stopped after he started school and I guess he heard from other kids that it 'wasn't acceptable' for him. So he was a little over 5.

 

[SarahBear]

My son has always had cut hair but liked wearing dresses, had a Frozen bag, wanted a MLP school bag, wore 'girls' pjs and some tops etc and it stopped after he started school and I guess he heard from other kids that it 'wasn't acceptable' for him. So he was a little over 5.

Were you able to get him to realize that it's still OK to like those things? I don't need my son to have any particular interests, but I don't want him to feel like certain things are "wrong" or "below him." He can like whatever he wants and look however he wants, but gender stereotypes are just so harmful; I want him to have a balanced understanding of things.

 

[amytrisha]

Finley chooses what he likes as opposed to what is for girls/boys. He has a pink secret life of pets umbrella (he’s never seen it, just liked the fluffy dog photos ) and he watches Elsa and Anna videos religiously on YouTube which is a little girl playing with her dolls.
He went to nursery with his umbrella and a little boy (coincidentally a little boy with rather long hair) was very disgusted at Finley’s umbrella! He said ‘why have you got that?!’ And Finley’s said what? To which the boy replied ‘that! It’s for girls!’ Pointing at the umbrella. Finley turned behind him to try to work out what the boy
Meant as it didn’t even cross his mind that he meant the umbrella! Bless. It really hurt me, because I guess school will be a lot more brutal and Finley’s obviously not realised yet either.

I’m just gonna keep supporting him to choose what he likes, if he adheres to the pressure from peers I’d be upset. I just want him to be whoever he wants to be. X

 

[Eleanor ace]

DS was often mistaken for a girl when he was a toddler/preschooler, he had longish hair and he chose some clothes from the "girls" section, plus he was very pretty (not that I'm biased ). He just seemed to gravitate more towards traditionally boyish things as he got to about 6, although I don't think it was down to peer pressure as he wasn't the only boy in his class who liked traditionally girly things and never seemed bothered if anyone mistook him for a girl. He would just say that he was a boy and if other kids asked him why he had a pink top or whatever he'd just say that he had it because he liked it. He actually used to talk a lot about how/when he could become a girl but he doesn't anymore.

 

[Teri7489]

while my son has a very "boyish" look his favourite blankie is pink, he loves playing with a dolly and putting it to bed, feeding it a bottle and so on. He also loves dressing up with his sisters tiara, my shoes and very girls things. only months ago when he had a dummy he always wanted a pink one which we let him have. For now at 2.5 he's happy and so are we, my daughter who's 4 on the other hand is starting to pick up things from nursery that he shouldn't have pink because he's a boy. Im using it as a positive to teach them both that toys and colours can be for everyone