Bogey Princesses
It seems N is now all about boys.
He’s been talking recently about all girls being ‘bogey girls’ (including me, his aunt and other previously girl friends). And over the last couple of months he’s turned anti-princess.
It started when there was a Disney Princess dolls advert on tv. N’s not usually one to watch adverts, but this one had him right up to the screen and glaring at it.
‘Mummy, it’s scary. I don’t like those princesses. Princesses are scary’.
It was news to me but whatever he says.
Then when we were away camping, I took him to Lulworth Castle. As we walked up to the entrance, N was concerned.
‘Mummy, do princesses live in this castle?’
‘No, not anymore. There aren’t really many princesses left nowadays compared to the old days when there were lots of knights and princesses’
‘Good, I don’t like princesses, they’re scary’. I’m not sure where he’s got that princesses are scary from.
We’ve also been sent some dressing up costumes to invite some friends round to play. They’re a mix of ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ outfits, and on opening the bag, N straight away said ‘these aren’t for boys, they’re princess outfits for boys only’. Previously, he’d been perfectly happy getting dressed up in dresses at nursery with a couple of his male friends, but it seems those times are over.
Girls are out. In N’s words ‘bogey girls’. Charming!
What age did your children start realising there was a ‘boy’ ‘girl’ split and difference?
I am not sure if MM knows she is a girl but all the sudden she has ditched her brothers toys and asking for pink, princesses, babies, dolls and kitchen baking things. B knows he is a boy now and will say that’s for girls but he secretly still loves playing with his sisters strollers to her dolls it’s like a car it has wheels right. lol Princesses are scary -brilliant.Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme
I think it’s often more obvious when there’s siblings of the opposite sex – they seem to be the ones leading the ‘girl’ ‘boy’ split. Thanks for stopping by
My son is almost 4 and is well aware of the differences between girls and boys and is starting to say toys and cards are for either girls or boys, but that is not reached clothes yet. He is still happy to wear his sister’s clothes or the princess dresses.
It’ll come. Nowadays colours and toys are so obviously aimed at one or the other, it’s hard for young children not to notice it fairly early on.
My daughter has become very aware of the difference this year, and she is 3 1/2. I can see why he thinks Princesses are a bit scary, thinking about it from a boys perspective. He’ll grow out of it though, in about 10 years 🙂
Well this is something we have yet to go through with Lamb. What a funny thing to be scared of! X
nothing like a high maintenance princess to scare a boy off lol. He must have seen a little clip on tele that scared him, poor love
funnily enough we’ve just experienced this. Darcie started ballet a couple of weeks ago a kept saying “boys don’t do ballet, only girls”. She got a big surprise when she saw a little boy in her class!! X
It’ll probably be the only boy she ever sees at class.
When I did ballet there were 2 boys in the dance school, neither of whom really wanted to be there. One used to arrive on his roller skates or skateboard and the teacher would go nuts at him because of the danger of injury!
How funny. I’ve bought a selection of toys for my toddler so he could play with cars or dolls but always goes for any form of transport. He’s not talking so we’re yet to have any funny comments!
Yep, N would always go for wheels too.
Awww, bless him. Being scared of princesses. To be fair though, some of those disney princesses even scare me haha. Your son is so cute.
We didn’t go through the whole dressing up thing (at all!) with my eldest he wasn’t interested but my second son was! I even had to buy him a doll and a dollies pushchair (in red!) I think he was about 4 years old when he was all “This is for a girl, my baby sister can have it now” lol. He also use to love my little pony, bless him.
Similar age then. It’s obviously the time when they just want to be typical boys.
Fab read, kids are so funny the things that they come out with lol can’t believe she thinks they’re scary. Bless her X
I’m not sure where he got the scared bit from. There’s nothing as strange as children!
I really like like his post, our lady went through a phase of freaking out when given any blue toys or made sit on blue chairs etc but a couple of times it happened I happened to be wearing blue or in fact she happened to be wearing blue herself so we gradually got through to her everyone can like every colour and that all toys are for everyone to enjoy
How strange (& funny) that he suddenly thinks princesses are so scary. I’m the only girl in a house full of boys, Riley is almost 4 and Harry is 2. Both are very much boys boys, they like their tractors, cars, trucks and trains…..but….equally, they’ll both happily dress up as princesses, play with dolls and want to brush my hair. I don’t make a big deal out of gender differences, i’m happy for them to explore their world and be what they want to be. I’m sure they’ll grow out of it at some point but it will be when they’re ready xxx
N loves ‘doing hair’ too, although he’s not done it for a while now.
Well in all honesty my little man has known about the spilt for as long as I can remember and he’s 4. However thats possibly due to myself as I would never buy him anything girly or princess. he has no sister either so we never have any girls toys around. xx
I don’t tend to buy him ‘girls’ stuff either. Although he does have a neutral baking set, and some of my old toys (a rag doll which sits on his bed, and a dolls buggy which he used to sit in, and pushes his toys around in). Nursery he used to get more choice but usually he’d naturally opt for tractors.
I wonder where he got princesses are scary, something must have triggered that. It’s funny this dressing up thing, I think we did it as kids but probably in mum and dad’s old clothes rather than anything bought for the purpose. How times change 🙂
Yes, the old dressing up box of handme down dressing gowns, shirts and handbags. Very different nowadays.
We never really went through the dressing up as princesses stage. There weren’t that many girly costumes around to be honest. Even if you don’t make a big deal of gender differences it seems to come along quite quickly.
How funny that he thinks princesses are scary. I love the things they come out with. The other week my 2 year old told me there was a ladybird eating his cornflakes lol
Wow, that is definitely an interesting thought process to get to that comment!
I think when my son was 3 and his first sister came along, that was when he realised how different girls and boys are.But I’m not a gender specific parent, so he would dress up as a princess or fairy and play with the doll’s house with no qualms at all.I asked him a few months ago how he felt living with 3 girls, I’m a single parent and he said he had never thought about it.I’m sure he’ll change his mind at some point.
You’re right, it’s just what’s normal for them, until of course the impact of peers hits which potentially changes things. It’s funny because N was never fussed about dolls at home or at friends houses, but at nursery he’d quite happily dress up with the other boys in girls dresses.
Ahhh what a funny thing for your little boy to be so anti princess! I can’t remember when my boys decided they were different… but I do remember they were always A typical boys and never chose to play with pink girly stuff!
N’s largely the same. It was only really at nursery when all the boys seemed to enjoy dressing up in girlie outfits
My son has always been a boy’s boy, from as young as I can remember. I’m sure once he started nursery, girls were strange creatures to him – not so much anymore as a nearly 17 year old :p
Lol. One of N’s really good friends is the girl across the road. I’m hoping they stay friends through the awkward avoiding boys/girls stage. But yes, he’s largely friends with boys.